Hugh L. Carey Tunnel Toll: Rates & CRZ Rules

In short: The Hugh L. Carey Tunnel (the old Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel) costs a car $7.46 with a New York E-ZPass, $9.79 Mid-Tier and $12.03 by mail, in each direction (rates as of October 12, 2026). Its Manhattan end is special for congestion pricing: the tunnel's connections to West Street are excluded roads, so driving out of the tunnel and straight up the West Side Highway is not a zone entry. A TLC trip that starts or ends in Lower Manhattan still carries the per-trip charge.

Carey Tunnel rates (Class 1 car)

• $7.46 only with a New York Customer Service Center (NYCSC) tag; "Non-NYCSC customers pay Tolls by Mail rates" (MTA). A New Jersey tag is charged $12.03.
• Mid-Tier ($9.79) when an NYCSC customer's tag is not read and the crossing is matched by plate.
• Same price as the Queens Midtown Tunnel, RFK, Whitestone, Throgs Neck and Verrazzano.

The West Street exception

The Congestion Relief Zone is Manhattan at and below 60th Street, excluding the FDR Drive, the West Side Highway/Route 9A, and "the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel connections to West Street" (TLC Notice #24-10). The MTA FAQ adds the practical rules (MTA FAQ):

• Using only the excluded roads is not tolled. Coming out of the tunnel and staying on West Street and the West Side Highway to pass through is not a zone entry.
• Parking on or just off an excluded road is tolled.
• If a vehicle is detected entering an excluded road but is not seen at the later detection points, it is charged.
• Leaving the excluded road for a street in the zone is an entry.

MTA data shows the effect. In 2025 there were 1,693,918 TLC taxi/FHV zone entries through the Carey Tunnel, the fewest of the 12 entry points, plus 494,307 TLC "excluded roadway" entries that stayed on the highway (t6yz-b64h). TLC vehicles were 21.9% of all zone entries at this tunnel. Map of the excluded roads: Congestion Relief Zone boundaries.

Lower Manhattan trips: what the passenger pays

For TLC vehicles the question is not where you drove but where the trip went. The per-trip charge applies to each trip "to, from, within, or through" the zone. Lower Manhattan, the Financial District, Battery Park City and Tribeca are all inside it.

One case the official pages don't settle: a TLC trip from Brooklyn to the Upper West Side that comes out of the tunnel and stays on West Street and the West Side Highway the whole way. The trip neither starts nor ends in the zone and uses only excluded roads. The MTA FAQ says such driving is not tolled for private vehicles, but the MTA and TLC pages we opened don't spell out how the per-trip charge treats it. If it matters to you, check the congestion fee line on that trip's record or statement, and ask your base or meter company.

Passengers pay "all tolls incurred during the trip" inside the city (§58-26(f)(1), §59A-23(b)(1)), at the actual E-ZPass amount. The NYS congestion surcharge (below 96th Street) is a separate charge on top. How both appear on a shift: congestion pricing for TLC drivers.

Your own car: the $1.50 credit

A private car paying the daily zone toll gets a $1.50 credit at peak with E-ZPass when it enters or exits the zone through the Carey or Queens Midtown Tunnel. It rises to $2.00 in 2028 and $2.50 in 2031, and all credits together are capped at $5.00 a day (TBTA schedule). Compare the $3.00 Lincoln/Holland credit on the Lincoln Tunnel page; full examples on crossing credits.

Traffic and E-ZPass use

In 2025 the tunnel had 21,981,320 crossings: 11,236,004 northbound to Manhattan and 10,745,316 southbound to Brooklyn. The E-ZPass share was 85.9%, down from 90.0% in 2019, the largest drop of any MTA crossing in that period (our sums of ebfx-2m7v, fetched October 12, 2026). The zone rate card is on Congestion Relief Zone toll; other crossings: Holland Tunnel, Verrazzano. Borough guides: Brooklyn, Manhattan. More: tolls hub.