Come January, most drivers will pay $9 to enter the heart of Manhattan, after New York City was granted federal approval for a tolling plan, decades in the making, that will be the first of its kind in the nation.

New York will now join a small club of global capitals around the world that includes London, Stockholm and Singapore that have installed similar tolling restrictions around their gridlocked centers and seen traffic and air quality improved.

But even as long-suffering supporters of congestion pricing celebrate, the tolling plan could still be upended. The program is in jeopardy of being blocked by a volley of lawsuits and an incoming president who has called it “the most regressive tax known to womankind.”

A central goal of the program is to raise $15 billion in financing for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to pay for the modernizing of the city’s mass transit system. The busiest transit system on the continent still depends on some equipment that dates back to before World War II and needs billions of dollars to install elevators and escalators, repair crumbling tracks and improve service, among other improvements.

To make the unpopular plan more palatable, Gov. Kathy Hochul has reduced the costs of the tolls, after first placing congestion pricing in limbo with a pause just weeks before its original start date in June.

Ms. Hochul said that she was concerned that the plan would be too much of an economic burden for New Yorkers. Some critics of the governor, however, questioned whether the suspension was also meant to shield Democrats at the ballot box from any possible fallout from the start of the plan.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.