NJ Transit Launches $98 World Cup Rail Plan for 80,000 MetLife Fans
Updated
Updated · Gothamist · Jun 13
NJ Transit Launches $98 World Cup Rail Plan for 80,000 MetLife Fans
3 articles · Updated · Gothamist · Jun 13
Summary
Saturday’s Brazil-Morocco opener will test NJ Transit’s World Cup operation, with MetLife parking closed and nearly 80,000 fans per game funneled onto trains, shuttle buses and ride-hail services.
$98 round-trip train tickets and game tickets will be required to enter NJ Transit’s Penn Station area starting four hours before kickoff, while other Manhattan-bound riders are being diverted to PATH via Newark.
NJ Transit says it made 40,000 train tickets available per game, deployed 80 multilingual ambassadors and warned Uber or Lyft trips could take two hours; ride-hail drop-offs are 1.3 miles from the stadium.
The agency is leaning on fan zones to spread postgame departures over three hours and has 585 buses, two ferries and Amtrak maintenance crews on standby after recent tunnel fires disrupted regional rail service.
The plan unfolds under pressure from NJ Transit’s 2014 Super Bowl failures and ahead of eight World Cup matches at MetLife, including the July 19 final.
Is the new $48M transit plan a real solution for the 2014 Super Bowl fiasco or just a more expensive crisis?
Why must fans pay a $98 train fare while FIFA, with its $11B profit, contributes nothing to the transit costs?
MetLife World Cup 2026: Low Transit Sales, High Prices, and the Urgent Challenge of Moving 40,000 Fans per Match
Overview
NJ Transit’s plan to move 40,000 fans by rail to each World Cup match at MetLife Stadium is facing serious challenges, with only 4,000 train tickets sold for the first match—just 10% of the target. This shortfall has raised immediate concerns among officials, who warn that a failure in the transportation plan could lead to a disaster worse than past Super Bowl issues. The low ticket sales highlight problems with fan engagement and raise questions about the effectiveness of communication and logistics, putting the success of the World Cup’s transportation strategy at risk.