2eMayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council leaders moved to end New York’s horse-drawn carriage industry by 2028, leaving workers with weak transition plans and no guaranteed pay.
New York City’s mayor and City Council speaker struck a deal this week to phase out the city’s long-running horse-drawn carriage trade, tying the push to a fatal Central Park crash and promising a “just transition” that the drivers’ own union calls empty.
Fox News Digital reported that Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin reached an agreement to advance legislation known as Romanch’s Law. If the Council approves it on Oct. 22, horse-drawn carriage operations would end beginning June 1, 2028.
The bill carries the name of 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan, a tourist from India who suffered fatal injuries in June after a carriage bolted in Central Park, collided with another carriage, and overturned near Tavern on the Green.
City officials frame the ban as a public-safety and animal-welfare fix. Carriage drivers, owners, and stable hands, many from immigrant families, face the loss of an industry that has defined the park for generations, with no firm promise of money to replace it.
Mamdani announced the outcome in plain terms on X.
"The horse carriage industry is coming to an end in New York City. Our administration will make sure workers and owners are protected, and the horses are safe,"
Menin cast the deal as overdue common sense after the June death.
"The tragic and preventable death of 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan made clear that the status quo is no longer acceptable,"
She added that the city can “honor our city’s traditions while recognizing when it’s time to move forward in the interest of public safety, protecting workers, and strengthening our city’s economic vitality.”
City Hall spokesperson Sneha Choudhary said the administration has worked with the Council, union partners, drivers, animal-welfare groups, and community leaders “to deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all.”
The legislation would order city agencies to draft a workforce transition plan by April 1, 2027. That plan is supposed to cover job placement, career counseling, training, and referrals into other transportation and tourism work. Officials would also have to consider compensation for carriage owners and help retiring horses. Financial payouts are not guaranteed.
Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen rejected the package as political theater that leaves immigrant families holding the bag.
"Council Speaker Menin's bill has no meaningful economic relief for workers,"
He said the measure “only says the city should prepare a worker transition plan by April 2027 and include weak measures like job fairs and job counseling.”
Samuelsen went further, accusing leaders of exploiting the death itself.
"Council Speaker Menin used the tragic death of a tourist to contrive a public safety crisis. This is disgraceful political opportunism, and Zohran should not simply go along with it, particularly when immigrant families' livelihoods are being destroyed,"
TWU Local 100 represents carriage drivers and owners. After Mahajan’s death the local called for tougher driver exams, better training, and tighter safety rules instead of an outright ban. Fox News Digital sought fresh comment; none was detailed in the available reporting.
Romanch Mahajan’s relatives have pressed lawmakers hard. His father, Deepak Mahajan, appeared in a video statement played for the City Council arguing their son would still be alive if a ban had passed the year before.
Additional family detail came from earlier coverage. The New York Post reported that the 18-year-old died during a family ride after the driver stepped away to take photos and the horse bolted. Relative Gaurav Mahajan called planned resumption of rides after a temporary pause “a profound insult,” saying the industry treated the loss “as a temporary inconvenience.”
Animal-rights groups and park managers cheered the Mamdani-Menin deal. PETA representative Ashley Byrne told reporters the move was “long overdue, and it can’t come quickly enough.” PETA has long campaigned against the carriages and claims more than 70 percent of New Yorkers back a ban; that figure has not been independently verified.
Central Park Conservancy President and CEO Betsy Smith welcomed the Council’s action and tied it directly to safety.
"We applaud the City Council for finally taking on this issue. For the Central Park Conservancy, this has always been a matter of public safety. We hope carriages can be phased out efficiently and humanely so that no one else ever suffers the fate of Romanch Mahajan,"
The Conservancy had previously described the fatal crash as the eighth horse-related incident in or around the park in roughly 13 months. Days before Mahajan’s death, a carriage horse named Deniz reportedly collapsed and died while pulling tourists.
Horse-drawn carriages have been a Central Park fixture for decades, a tourist draw and a working livelihood for the men and women who drive, stable, and maintain the animals. Menin would be the first sitting Council speaker to back a ban of this kind, according to the Council.
The agreement locks in a multi-year runway: transition planning through April 2027, a Council vote on Oct. 22, and a hard stop on June 1, 2028 if the bill passes. What it does not lock in is cash for the people whose licenses, horses, and routes disappear when the clock runs out.
City leaders talk about public safety, animal welfare, and economic vitality in the same breath. The union that actually represents the drivers hears job fairs and counseling sessions. Immigrant families who built their living around the carriages are told the industry is finished and that protection is coming, without a guaranteed dollar attached.
Progressive city hall found a tragedy, named a bill after the victim, and moved to erase a working-class tradition on a timetable that leaves the workers last in line for real relief.
