Like midtown Manhattan’s bumper-to-bumper traffic, the long journey of New York’s congestion pricing plan has been marked by starts and stops, culminating with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announcement Thursday that the new tolls will finally take effect on January 5th.

With the clock ticking down a on a friendly administration in Washington, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul lifted her pause of the controversial congestion pricing program, bringing it back with a lower $9 fee to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.

New York City’s congestion pricing plan is back and set to kick in on Jan. 5, Gov. Hochul announced Thursday. But the daily toll — which Hochul put on indefinite hiatus this past June, three weeks before it was supposed to go into effect — will be $9 rather than the original planned toll of $15 for at least three years,