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NJ Transit enters the global stage as World Cup games kick off at MetLife Stadium
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
and
Stephen Nessen
Published Jun 13, 2026
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Stephen Nessen / Gothamist
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
and
Stephen Nessen
Published Jun 13, 2026
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North Jersey’s transportation networks will be put to the test Saturday as the Garden State’s slate of FIFA World Cup games kicks off at MetLife Stadium with a group match at 6 p.m. between Brazil and Morocco.
The stadium’s parking lots will be closed to drivers, and event organizers are relying on NJ Transit trains, shuttle buses, and thousands of Uber and Lyft cars to get nearly 80,000 ticketholders into the stadium for each game.
NJ Transit officials have been sensitive to some of the agency’s past failures handling big sporting events, like the 2014 Super Bowl that left crowds of fans stranded on train platforms at the Meadowlands for hours after the game. Now, the system will be on an even larger global stage as it transports fans to eight World Cup games, including the championship match on July 19 — which is slated to be the most-viewed sporting event on the planet.
"We know from some of the data that almost half the stadium is going to be international folks, folks who might not be familiar with our region, our transportation,” said NJ Transit Police Chief Christopher Trucillo. “They know transportation because Europe has the best, right? But they don't know this particular transportation.”
Trucillo said 80 multilingual “ambassadors” will be in place to help fans from all over the globe navigate New Jersey’s dizzying transportation system.
Saturday will mark the first day that NJ Transit will cordon off its section of Penn Station four hours before World Cup games. To enter the area and board NJ Transit trains, commuters will have to line up with both their game tickets and their round-trip NJ Transit train tickets, which the agency is selling for $98 to offset costs to run the service and provide security measures imposed by FIFA.
During the four hours before each game, all other NJ Transit train riders leaving Manhattan will be directed to take the PATH to Newark to find a separate train home.
NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri told reporters this week that the transit agency doesn’t expect to sell out the 40,000 train tickets it made available to people for each game. Still, he urged people to take the train, warning that riding in an Uber or a Lyft to the stadium could take two hours due to New Jersey’s gridlock.
The two major e-hail apps will have a drop-off zone at the Meadowlands Racetrack facility, which is 1.3 miles from the stadium.
NJ Transit also renamed the train line to the stadium the “DoorDash Meadowlands Rail Line" under a $1.7 million partnership with the food delivery service. Kolluri said the deal helped reduce the cost of the train tickets, which were originally slated to cost $150.
Still, shuttle buses from Manhattan are far cheaper than the train. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last month announced the buses, which run to the stadium from Midtown and the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, would cost $20 per round trip, down from a previously planned $80.
Kolluri said in order for the operation to move smoothly, the agency is banking on people hanging out in designated fan zones outside the stadium to ease crowd crush after each game.
“The fan zone is going to be a really important metering mechanism to keep people there because we wanted to distribute this out, we have three hours to do the egress, that is enough to move people safely,” Kolluri said.
The rail operation will rely on Amtrak’s tunnel and track infrastructure connecting Penn Station to New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.
In the last month, separate fires knocked out service in Amtrak’s East River and Hudson River tunnels, creating daylong delays for NJ Transit and LIRR service. Amtrak officials said they’re preparing to deploy maintenance crews along the Northeast Corridor in case of an emergency.
NJ Transit also has 585 buses and two ferries on standby to move fans should things go south.
World Cup fans returning to Penn Station on Saturday may also run into frenzied Knicks fans. The team plays an 8:30 p.m. game in San Antonio that could clinch the Knicks the NBA Finals and deliver their first championship in 53 years.
The Knicks' previous three NBA Finals game wins, two of which came on the road, were followed by impromptu parties and mass arrests near Madison Square Garden and Penn Station.
Tagged
World Cup 2026
new jersey
new york city
transportation
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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