While the state of New York has given the greenlight for tolls on cars entering midtown Manhattan, Montreal's mayor says we're not ready for that here.
In New York, they'd begin charging tolls at the end of 2020 for motorists entering the Big Apple south of 60th Street. They still have to work out details such as how much and if there'd be any exemptions.
Valérie Plante said it was a "courageous and coherent" move by New York to ease traffic downtown in Manhattan and to finance public transit.
But Plante wouldn't go as far as to say that it would be a good idea for Montreal because she insisted they work first on government financing for public transportation for the entire Montreal metropolitan region.
"We're not there yet. It's not what we're considering at all," said Plante, adding "it's a bigger problem than only Montreal."
"New York is New York, London is London UK, Montreal is Montreal," said Plante.
"One thing is for sure, if we are serious about supporting our network, our existing network and developing our public transport network, there has to be more sources of financing."
Plante said a major issue now is finding ways to pay the growing costs of just operating public transit.