Complaining about problems with New Jersey’s rail service, NJ Transit, is a time-honored tradition west of the Hudson River, on par with the pork roll-Taylor ham debate.
So when the agency was put in charge of carrying tens of thousands of global soccer fans to the FIFA World Cup at MetLife Stadium, some regulars held their breath.
Would the rail network, plagued in recent weeks by track fires, electrical outages and accusations of price gouging, cause an international incident? And would daily riders have even more reason to grouse?
On Tuesday, state officials celebrated that the system had transported nearly 26,000 people to and from the France-Senegal match at the stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. It was the second of eight games, including the final, scheduled to be played there.
“Our transportation system is rising to the occasion,” Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that she and the agency looked forward to “building on this momentum.”
But some critics are finding reasons to be skeptical.
NJ Transit had originally planned to transport 40,000 passengers per game — more than any other mode of transportation, and about half of the stadium’s expected daily attendance. Parking at the stadium was largely banned for security reasons.
After public backlash about the price of the round-trip train ticket from New York’s Penn Station, sales have been weaker than expected. They were priced at $150, then $105 and finally $98, which is still seven times the typical fare. For the first game at the stadium, last Saturday, fewer than 22,000 train tickets were sold, according to the transit agency.
NJ Transit has argued that it no longer needs to sell as many tickets, because a number of parking spaces at the nearby American Dream Mall ($225 each) became available. A $20 round-trip shuttle bus option, devised by Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, has also been popular, with all 12,000 seats sold out for the Tuesday game.
But the agency’s justification for the high ticket price was that it needed to cover $48 million in expenses related to the tournament — a sum it is now unlikely to raise at its current rate of sales. (After additional sponsorship deals, the costs dropped to about $31 million, the agency said.)
Kris Kolluri, the president and chief executive of NJ Transit, said in an interview on Thursday that there were no plans to change the train ticket price again. Even if lower ticket sales meant the revenue did not cover the full cost of the operation, he said he would not seek additional funding from the State Legislature.
“It’s now up to me, without service cuts or passing it on to commuters, how I’m going to make up the delta,” he said, without citing specific examples.
Fewer train passengers could also mean more congestion on the highways for attendees using different modes of transportation, including buses, ride-share services and private vehicles.
Kate Slevin, the executive vice president of the Regional Plan Association, an urban policy research group, said a shortfall in sales could “absolutely have budget impacts.”
NJ Transit passengers are already expecting a 3 percent fare increase in July, after a similar hike last year and a 15 percent fare increase in 2024. The agency, which has an annual operating budget of more than $3 billion, said in April that it had a $200 million budget gap, partly because of the high cost of running transit at a number of major sporting events and concerts last year. The agency, including bus and rail services, moves an average of about 900,000 people every weekday.
For some longtime riders, there is also the indignity of taking a back seat to soccer fans.
On game days, the portion of Penn Station in Manhattan that serves NJ Transit customers has been shut down to regular riders starting four hours before each match, and continuing for several hours afterward. The agency has also encouraged New Jersey residents to work from home on game days, some of which coincide with rush-hour commutes.
On Tuesday, Michael Austin, 51, who works at an advertising firm in New York and lives in Maplewood, N.J., ran straight into the crossbars of FIFA mania.
“I’ve been conditioned to assume — I don’t want to say ‘the worst’ — but I’ve been conditioned to not expect the best,” Mr. Austin said about his evening commute.
Even so, when his 5:36 train stopped at Secaucus Junction, a busy transit hub where World Cup attendees have to change trains on their way to and from the stadium, a one-minute stop turned into a 15-minute delay as waves of confused soccer fans mistakenly boarded and then abruptly exited the train.
“It was mayhem,” he said, adding that a cascade of other delays had turned his 45-minute commute into an hour-and-a-half slog.
To the transit agency’s credit, the journey for soccer fans to and from the stadium has so far been fairly smooth and faster than most trips on the highway. NJ Transit said it moved nearly 22,000 people out of the stadium within 90 minutes on Saturday.
But even routine delays in the service around Penn Station could snarl train traffic in the days to come.
On Tuesday night, NJ Transit blamed a switch malfunction for a roughly 30-minute delay. Amtrak, the national passenger railroad that owns Penn Station and is responsible for the switch, said the malfunction had delayed 35 NJ Transit trains.
Mr. Kolluri warned last week that even short delays could severely hobble World Cup transportation.
“Our best-laid plans are only as good as Amtrak’s ability to carry out its duty,” he said.
If train service breaks down, the agency has rented a fleet of additional buses, as well as two large ferry boats that will be stationed in Weehawken, N.J. (Some have likened the boat backup plan to the evacuation of Dunkirk.)
But the transit plan, for now, is still on track.
On Saturday, Rodrigo Almeida took the train with his father, who had flown in from Brazil, to fulfill a lifelong dream of attending the World Cup. Each game ticket cost $2,500.
At first, Mr. Almeida had winced at the $98 train fare, but he said it was most likely the fastest and easiest way for his father to travel to the game.
“So far, it’s been positive,” he said about the train ride. He was more concerned about the Brazil team’s chances.
“Oh, Brazil’s going to go all the way,” he said. “For $2,500? All the way.”
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