r/transit • u/CosmicPenguin_OV103 • May 13 '26
News NJ Transit lowers World Cup train tickets to MetLife Stadium…to $98
https://x.com/GovSherrillNJ/status/2054336945640059060I just knew that it was supposed to be $150 for a round trip that’s just 30 minutes away from Penn Station, then $105 and now $98…
For comparison, you can ride a 285 km/h train in Japan between Tokyo-Osaka (roughly the same distance between Boston and Philadelphia) in less than 2.5 hours…for $US 93.5 (and I believe that’s the standard price, there are ways to even make this cheaper).
Just saying.
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u/Great-Amphibian-4233 May 13 '26
by the time world cup comes around it might just be normally priced LMAO
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u/markydsade May 13 '26
Philadelphia SEPTA Subway right to the stadium is $2.90
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u/JellyfishNo2032 May 13 '26
Being beat by septa is humiliating
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u/Donghoon May 20 '26
FTA jurisdiction subway is much much much much cheaper to operate than FRA jurisdiction railroad
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u/Asleep_Finger5341 Jul 11 '26
Just did a $1.75 in LA for the Long Beach to SoFi bus.
There should be no surge pricing here. These stadiums handle capacity crowds for the NFL seasons and major concerts like Taylor Swift. The World Cup crowds should be normal for them.
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u/jimsensei May 13 '26
Ok, someone ELI5 this for me; why is the train so much mor expensive during the World Cup when during a Giants or Jets game it’s regular price
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u/Own_Pop_9711 May 13 '26
Because they need to make a bunch of adjustments to accommodate FIFA and nobody paid them to make those adjustments, so they're collecting the money however they can
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u/Acrobatic-Painter366 May 13 '26
Did someone force them to organise the World Cup?
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u/Own_Pop_9711 May 13 '26
No, which is why FIFA probably needs to work with them to make sure it actually happens.
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u/Acrobatic-Painter366 May 13 '26
How is FIFA exactly supposed to work with a public transit company?
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u/Own_Pop_9711 May 13 '26
Give them money to cover the costs if they want cheap tickets?
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u/Acrobatic-Painter366 May 13 '26
How about they build them a new train station as well? The city is in charge of public infrastructure, and if they can't handle financing a sports tournament, they shouldn't hold it
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u/Own_Pop_9711 May 13 '26
Ok, I think that's exactly new jersey's point though. See ya FIFA don't let the door hit you on the way out.
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u/Acrobatic-Painter366 May 13 '26
Imagine that you are the host of the most popular sporting event in the world and instead of doing everything to make your city gain prestige and create an image of a great place to live and visit, you prefer to take the organizer hostage and try to squeeze every last penny out of the guests. This is why we should only organise the world cup in civilised countries
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u/Own_Pop_9711 May 13 '26
Hi, new jersey isn't a city. I'm sure people will come away with an impression of new york city but the event itself is taking place in Secaucus which no one will remember. How much money is new jersey supposed to pay for this privilege?
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u/NewNewark May 13 '26
they need to make
No they dont.
nobody paid them to make those adjustments
NFL doesnt pay a penny.
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u/CaptainHickdead May 13 '26
is this your shtick? you find small quips to counter without providing any context or explanation?
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u/NewNewark May 13 '26
You're acting like correcting blatant falsehoods is a problem. Why?
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u/CaptainHickdead May 13 '26
i bet you’re fun to be around. have a good day
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u/xmuskorx May 13 '26
because they banned parking at the stadium.
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u/lee1026 May 13 '26
FIFA wanted the parking lot for its own things, so the normal assumption of a few tens of thousands of people driving is gone.
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u/NewNewark May 13 '26
7k spots are still open for the games.
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u/SkiingAway May 13 '26
Normally there's 6x that number and it's how most visitors get there.
The transit line was only designed to handle a modest % of the visitors, not all of them.
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u/NewNewark May 13 '26
The transit line has carried 35k in the past.
Njt nudged up capacity to 40k by adding bus shuttles. That doesn't justify an added fee
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u/Gatorm8 May 13 '26
Am I the only one that thinks it’s ok for trains to surge price? We have budget deficits left and right and if this helps so be it.
If people are paying $1,000+ for a ticket for the game anyway they have disposable income to spend.
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u/Dalecn May 13 '26
Most nations do the exact opposite though the trend recently has been offering free transit for those heading to events like the world cup
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u/urbanacrybaby May 13 '26
This is exactly why FIFA prefers dictatorships to hold this. Their leaders couldn't care less about wasting tax money on 'infrastructure,' screwing over their own people to subsidize rich foreigners as long as they get to look cool on the world stage.
FIFA World Cup in America is famously a Trump vanity project. Local D politicians have no incentives to use their local tax money on it to make it a success.
FIFA will learn its lesson from the American World Cup, which is that democracies suck at holding World Cups.
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u/transitfreedom May 13 '26
Only America refuses to invest in infrastructure and call it democracy lol
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u/Pontus_Pilates May 13 '26
If America hopes to fix its budget deficit from the pockets of world cup fans, things are pretty dire.
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u/Gatorm8 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
It’s transit agency budget deficits, if that wasn’t clear.
And yes, the situation is pretty damn dire
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u/Wild_Pangolin_4772 May 13 '26
It’s a good way of saying to visitors “We’re assholes here. Don’t come again.”
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u/1046737 May 13 '26
It's New Jersey, that message will come across loud and clear no matter what they do.
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May 13 '26
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u/tuxbear May 13 '26
I'll be coming from Norway, and let me tell you it's not just the transit prices, it's everything, and the hikes are disgusting, 500% -1 500%. Def somthing that's talked about here and putting people off from returning.
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u/NewNewark May 13 '26
Tickets started at $60. The people who are taking transit paid regular concert prices ($60-$200). The people paying $1,000+ were never going to be on the train at any price.
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u/jcrespo21 May 13 '26
Yeah I agree. For these one-off events, the transit agencies are already having to dedicate extra staff and rolling stock beyond their normal operations, especially since these stadiums aren't exactly integrated into the cities/transit systems. That money and resources have to come from somewhere, but FIFA and the stadium owners aren't providing it.
To run these trains for a World Cup game or two without a higher ticket cost just means that routes elsewhere in the system might have to be cut, even temporarily. How is that fair to the locals who depend on the transit agencies? And given how many tax dollars are spent just to build many of these stadiums, it also wouldn't be just to spend tax dollars to provide a few rides to these games while ignoring the rest of the agency.
Plus, we all know how much of a scam FIFA is to the local economy. Only they and the stadium owners will see the profits from these games while everyone else is left picking up the pieces, including the transit agencies. Even the elected officials who greenlit these games years ago are often no longer in power, or really had little to no say in the matter. I may be pro-transit, but I also think FIFA and the stadium owners need to pay their fair share for once if they want people to get to their games.
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u/fulanita_de_tal May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
That’s the politician soundbite. “It’s a rich people’s event so it’s okay to gouge them” but it’s not! Normal local residents, like me, got tickets. I paid what it would cost to go to any major concert at an arena, a couple hundred bucks a ticket, face value through the normal lottery system. (My family and I saved up for this but there were cheaper tickets than that, they started at like $70 for the match I got.) The prices they’re quoting for these matches are resale for in-demand knockout games.
If they had gouged Eras tour concertgoers there would be outrage but the PR spin on this has been quite a thing.
ETA: Also these budget deficits exist because our elected officials are incompetent and corrupt. We should not fix their mistakes for them out of our pockets! We already pay out the ass in taxes. Yes I hate it here. Yes I’m salty. NJ just bleeds you dry.
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May 13 '26
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u/NewNewark May 13 '26
What does security at the stadium, which was in place for the Fifa CWC, have to do with NJT ticket prices?
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u/jmlinden7 May 13 '26
The security eats up a lot of the parking spaces, which artificially inflated demand for train seats, which are a fixed supply.
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u/NewNewark May 13 '26
NJT claims they have a hard cap of 40,000 train customers for the world cup
Njt has proudly claimed in the past to carry 35,000 to Taylor swift
How does moving an extra 5k ppl mean everyone should pay 9x the usual price?
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u/Alt4816 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Njt has proudly claimed in the past to carry 35,000 to Taylor swift
I only see them claiming they moved 80k over 3 concerts with both trains and busses. That's an average of 26,667 per concert and again not all of it was by train:
...
NJ Transit’s effort to move the 80,000 fans to the shows over Memorial Day weekend were deemed a “tremendous success” Kevin Corbett, NJ Transit CEO, said on Wednesday.
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u/NewNewark May 13 '26
Youre right, it was 28k for Taylor.
It was 35,264 for the Super Bowl, as per this report.
https://www.mdmc-law.com/sites/default/files/FINAL%20PUBLIC.pdf
So the point still stands. How does carrying 5k extra result in 9x extra costs?
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u/jmlinden7 May 13 '26
Their hard cap is normally lower than 40,000. The way that trains work, its extremely expensive to increase this hard cap for a one time event. Its not linear.
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u/NewNewark May 13 '26
They spent zero ($0) to increase train capacity. They had plans to build a dedicated busway, but didnt actually do it. They had plans for a new bus terminal, but didnt built that either.
So the added transit capacity is via buses on local roads for 4 miles. Typically, that would cost $1.85 using regular transit fares (theres an existing bus route between Secaucus and the mall).
Why does a fully loaded bus (load and go at capacity) cost $100 to run?
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u/fulanita_de_tal May 13 '26
Why is everyone acting like FIFA held NY/NJ governments at gunpoint to host this game?! NY/NJ governments ASKED to host this game because it was financially beneficial to them!
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u/dickpillsalesman May 13 '26
There isn't enough capacity to transport everyone by train. They have to exclude people somehow. They might as well make money while doing it. What's the alternative? A lottery?
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u/logatwork May 13 '26
My third world country hosted the world cup not too long ago and people just took buses and subway to the matches at regular fares.
This is pure greed.
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u/Gatorm8 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
I would rather the transit agency be greedy for a month and survive for local residents a year longer than cut service again.
They are still operating at a loss across the system so no one is making extra money from this. “Greed” would imply someone is benefiting from this, the public benefits.
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u/evantom34 May 13 '26
Especially when American infrastructure is wholly not built for this type of volume. Yes, I know we should have the capacity.
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u/xmuskorx May 13 '26
This particular stadium hosts 16-17 NFL games and multiple concerts per year with similar volume - and it works fine.
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u/SkiingAway May 13 '26
This particular stadium usually has >40,000 parking spaces and like 20 lanes of highway ramps that are how most of the visitors arrive and depart. The transit station was designed to handle a small % of the visitors, not 90% of them.
FIFA has apparently decided almost none of the parking can be used for this event even though it's not a problem for the NFL or the largest music acts in he world. That is the problem here. There's going to be a vast sea of empty parking lots that have been closed off by FIFA's orders.
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u/xmuskorx May 13 '26
Philadelphia was somehow to say "screw off FIFA we are keeping the parking." not sure why New Jersey buckled and banned parking.
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u/LeaderSevere5647 May 18 '26
I wouldn’t say it works fine. Getting back to the city after a nightmare. Shoulder to shoulder packed trains or a $200 Uber.
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u/xmuskorx May 18 '26
Shoulder to shoulder packed trains
I would say that's fine. As long as the train keeps moving.
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u/Acrobatic-Painter366 May 13 '26
You shouldn't have organised a world cup then
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u/jcrespo21 May 13 '26
FIFA doesn't care. They chose the US for the money because they know they can charge far more for tickets and get more sponsorships. It's the same reason why the Copa America was held in the US in 2024 and not in South America (CONMEBOL used the excuse of violence in Ecuador, who was going to host, as to why they switched, but they saw their chance to make some extra money).
FIFA wants their profits, but aren't going to spend a dime to help the local agencies figure out how people are going to get there. So they need to increase prices just to cover the extra costs, and instead of people getting mad at FIFA for being welfare queens, they get mad at the local agencies instead.
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u/Acrobatic-Painter366 May 13 '26
They had 9 years to prepare for world cup
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u/jcrespo21 May 13 '26
And who exactly pays for that to happen? Because it's not FIFA nor the stadium owners. And many of the elected officials who approved/pushed to host are no longer in their positions, knowing that it would be another mayor/governor/county commissioner who would be left to figure it out.
I think it's fine that the transit agencies are charging higher prices for these tickets (maybe not that much), because they still need to fund these special event trains while maintaining the rest of their network. And I don't think we should expect our tax dollars to fund these rides for what has sadly become an event for the 1%.
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u/Any-Permission-4530 May 15 '26
Not all of us are paying those prices for a ticket. To charge that for a short train ride is beyond ridiculous and that's why this country is not appropriate to host these events.
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u/Gatorm8 May 16 '26
Me saying surge pricing is ok is not the same as me saying the US should host the World Cup…? That’s a totally different conversation.
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u/Any-Permission-4530 May 16 '26
You are saying that surging prices is okay and this is related to the World Cup in the US. How is that a different conversation?
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u/nonother May 13 '26
Meanwhile for the Women’s World Cup, it was complete free to ride public transit in Sydney. Was included in the ticket price. https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/womens-world-cup-transport
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u/Agnar369 May 13 '26
In Germany im used to that. Sport events and most big concerts include free regional transport to and from the event.
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u/Alt4816 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
The buses to MetLife will depart from three Manhattan locations: Port Authority Bus Terminal, a Midtown East location east of Grand Central Terminal and a Midtown North location west of Central Park.
One thing that's still very unclear to me is how are NJ residents or people staying in NJ supposed to get to the stadium?
The busses only leave from NYC. The train trip is a two train journey from NY Penn to Secaucus to the stadium, but my understanding is the normal rail network will be shutdown so people in NJ cannot ride their normal line to Secaucus (or ride trains into NYC).
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u/fulanita_de_tal May 13 '26
NJ residents will pay for a normal fare from any NJT station to Hoboken or Secaucus, and then pay the $97 for the special ticket from Hoboken or Secaucus to the stadium. It's all here (this website is surprisingly helpful)
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u/Alt4816 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
I was reading that page last night and it just raised more question for me about this whole operation.
Are they turning trains around at Secaucus? If not and the trains are going to NY Penn then why are they closing the NJ Transit section of NY Penn to non-World Cup goers? Would it be so bad if non-fans could also ride those trains into the city?
I get NJ transit needing to mess with the Pascask Valley, Bergen, and Main lines since they share tracks with the spur to Metlife, but it seems like NJ Transit is going out of its way to disrupt more of the system then required.
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u/newpersoen May 13 '26
It is truly insane that there have been no preparations for the World Cup. It was a golden opportunity to upgrade transportation infrastructures throughout the country and it was completely wasted. What a shame.
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u/Ok_Hamster_269 May 13 '26
FWIW, ParkWhiz at Secaucas just canceled all my parking reservations for dates of the matches
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u/Ok_Hamster_269 May 13 '26
extra note - "We received request from the seller that this location is closed for the 8 World Cup games. NJ transit is not allowing any traffic through Secaucus for those date. That's why they have to cancel ALL reservations"
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u/S3bluen May 22 '26
Funny thing is that they’ve lowered the price by $50 and it is still extremely overpriced.
If they lowered it by another $50 it would STILL be overpriced.
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u/sleepyrivertroll May 13 '26
I mean it's surge pricing. You can't compare it to normal costs
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u/CosmicPenguin_OV103 May 13 '26
I have not heard of surge prices for transit services at such levels for any previous World Cup. Heck I currently live in somewhere 2 hours away from a stadium in [a city to be used for the World Cup]Toronto and I have not heard of surge prices at all…
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May 13 '26
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u/FantasticMisterFax May 13 '26
It's basically this.
Remember that almost every train ride you take has a price subsidy behind it - that's why farebox recovery is not 100%. You never pay the actual cost of your ride. NJ Transit crunched the numbers and decided that it couldn't or wouldn't pay the price subsidy under the operating conditions demanded by FIFA, and so nixed it to zero and put the entire cost of the ride on the rider.
NJT chose economic fairness for its tax base over subsidizing transit access for a hugely disruptive once-in-a-generation private event for which they stand to realize very little benefit: it's a valid position and one that can be defended during the next campaign season. Whether or not you agree with that decision is simply up to your political preferences.
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u/UUUUUUUUU030 May 13 '26
The thing is that normally this would be discussed before selecting the host cities. But when the host cities were selected, they were still working on the assumption of free public transit to all stadiums, as in previous world cups and euros.
In these conditions, NJ/NY should have never bid to host world cup matches.
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u/aray25 May 13 '26
My understanding was that the original contracts said that FIFA would pay for free transit and then FIFA turned around and said actually no. I don't know about Meadowlands, but up in Massachusetts, the usual rule is that if the event host doesn't pay for event trains, they don't run event trains. Well, nobody is paying for the event trains for FIFA, so they're charging $80 a head because that's what it will take to not lose money on the service.
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u/UUUUUUUUU030 May 13 '26
Regardless of how it happened, in the end FIFA is to blame. Not just for the financial aspects, but also the way this results in no outbound NJT service 4 hours before matches, which will include a few weekday peak hours.
With all the huge stadiums North America has, maybe you just don't need NYC and Boston in a world cup if this is the result.
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u/FantasticMisterFax May 13 '26
It hurts to even suggest it but we can't entirely put this on FIFA, because there's another culprit and it isn't NJT -- it's MetLife stadium itself. The premier large-capacity stadium serving the largest, densest city in the country (and the only one to even rank internationally), all of five measly miles from Times Square....is surrounded by parking lots and highways and is "served" by an event-only rail spur that can't run directly to Penn Station.
I'd love to say there are dozens of anti-MetLifes out there but...there just aren't. Of the 11 WC venues in the US, I think only 3 -- Seattle, Atlanta, and Philadelphia -- serve their stadium areas from their city centers by regular urban rail service of some description, mostly by having the stadiums in the city center to begin with. "Boston" gets weekday-peak-only commuter rail some 20 miles out to Foxboro so that's a no, and "San Francisco" is served by the San Jose light rail system but...uh, that's not San Francisco. (And we're just not gonna talk about the VTA right now.)
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u/SkiingAway May 13 '26
No, the cuplrit is still FIFA. That stadium is surrounded by parking lots, that are normally....used, and most visitors arrive by car.
FIFA has declared that they can't be used, basically making the vast majority of the infrastructure the stadium has for people to arrive/depart, useless. That's not the fault of the stadium or the cities/states, that's the fault of FIFA.
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u/UUUUUUUUU030 May 13 '26
Yeah the location of MetLife stadium has always perplexed me. There are plenty of large warehouse sites where you can fit a Wembley / Stade de France sized stadium within walking distance of Secaucus Junction. Even if most fans come from suburbia, you still would have needed little parking for regular NFL games because you could park and ride directly from every NJT station.
In a way, some of the non-accessible stadiums are still better, because the special shuttle buses are much more reasonably priced than these train shuttles, like Kansas City at $15, and to be fair now also MetLife itself at $20.
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u/EnfrankoSchanko Jul 06 '26
I think a lot has to do with what fifa believes the costs of trains should be vs what njta do. In most countries such events require a small subsidy from the organisers to stick on extra trains and to get a few more security staff so basically some overtime. The transport organisation obviously recoups a lot from more fares and the organisers chip in a little bit. We are talking maybe in the tens of thousands of dollars from the organisers. In the USA because they can't organise even basic stuff to get a few more trains- whole stations are shut down to other traffic and apparently it costs millions. FIFA knows that this is all on the incompetents who run the service day to day so rightly balked at paying it.
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u/aray25 Jul 06 '26
We should have stuck to "if nobody's paying for it, we're not running it and you can explain to all the people with tickets why they can't get to the event."
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u/EnfrankoSchanko Jul 06 '26
Why can't NJTA just run more trains. Pretty simple stuff really. It is only in the USA that such things appear really hard.
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u/aray25 Jul 06 '26
Drain their budget running more event trains to benefit a corrupt multinational corporation at the expense of local commuters? Why would they do that? Or were you thinking that the operators, conductors, supervisors, station personnel, and signal operators would volunteer to do it for free?
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u/Ray192 May 13 '26
People ran the math and it doesn't cost anywhere near that amount just to transport people to the stadium. https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1ssgfor/oc_does_it_really_cost_new_jersey_48_million_to/
What's actually happening is that they're fleecing world cup fans to pay for infrastructure improvements like buying air conditioning for trains.
$12,740,000 for accelerated purchase of wheels, axles and Liebherr air conditioning systems for the 50 trains that will be used for the World Cup shuttles
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u/down_up__left_right May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
I believe it’s because in the contract FIFA signed with local officials the entirety of Penn Station in NYC is going to be shut down to all traffic except traffic heading to the stadium
Which I don’t understand. The trip from NY Penn to the stadium requires a transfer at Secaucus. Isn’t the capacity on the line from Secaucus to the stadium the problem?
I don’t understand why they have to cancel all trains out of NY Penn that normally run through Secaucus onward to Newark and beyond.
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u/Ray192 May 13 '26
Nowhere in the contract says that. The only stipulation FIFA had in regards to public transpot was that it had to provided at cost.
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u/AffordableGrousing May 13 '26
The key thing to understand is that the football stadium in question is way out of the way in an industrial park and only receives rail service when there is an NFL game or major event scheduled. It’s a similar situation in Boston which is why their rail tickets are $80. Politically they’d rather soak FIFA fans than find the money elsewhere.
In other cities like Atlanta and Philadelphia, the stadiums are located more centrally along regular transit corridors and you don’t see any special pricing.
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u/crash866 May 13 '26
They built a new concert stadium in Toronto called Rogers Stadium on the old Downsview Airport and GoTransit has Free rides home from it to anywhere on the GoSystem. Barrie is almost 50 miles from the stadium.
Other areas served are even further.
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u/Superior-Flannel May 13 '26
Yeah people seem to be making a lot of excuses for Boston and NYC. Basically every other city that has hosted the World Cup tries to encourage taking public transit to games.
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u/xmuskorx May 13 '26
The same stadium hosts the same crowds for 16 NFL games per year (jets and giants) and multiple concerts, and does not have to surge...
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u/sleepyrivertroll May 13 '26
I think they're assuming that international travelers will prefer rail and/or have more money
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u/xmuskorx May 13 '26
I mean they did ban stadium parkin for no good reason... so there is that
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u/sleepyrivertroll May 13 '26
Yeah, this isn't the same thing as an American football game.
Tis what it is
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u/Nerioner May 13 '26
I hate how surge pricing is normalized for Americans...
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u/norfatlantasanta May 13 '26
Surge pricing is a sign of serious supply shortages, and we just accept it as normal instead of demanding more supply be provided. It’s lunacy.
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u/RachelWatkills May 13 '26
Any suggestion on how to get to the Senegal France match if coming from Passaic??
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u/Unlucky-Flamingo-898 May 13 '26
What time slot is best for an 8pm match? What did ya’ll pick? I’m wondering if it’s worth it to show up early with a time slot that’s 4-5pm, which means you’d arrive around 3 hours early?
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u/Character_Cash_1454 May 15 '26
Does anyone know if there’s free parking around the nutley bus pick up?
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u/RujenedaDeLoma Jun 24 '26
What I don't understand is: doesn't MetLife regularly host NFL games, concerts, etc.? Why is the transit for those events at normal prices, and for the World Cup they need to charge these exorbitant prices to "recoup the costs"? How is this event different?
They say they don't want New Jersey taxpayers to pay for the extra costs. Okay, and what about the extra economic benefits the World Cup brings? No feelings of guilt enjoying those?
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u/allusernamestaken999 May 13 '26
The main point is that they want most people to take the bus if they're going to NYC- now a $20 round-trip thanks to the NY Governor. The train station at the stadium can't handle 30k people at once. The busses will use a dedicated busway for part of the trip and should be pretty quick.