Delirious cheers from Jersey movers and shakers greeted FIFA’s selection of MetLife Stadium for the 2026 World Cup final game. When more than 80,000 soccer fans descend on the Meadowlands, New Jersey Transit will have to bring it’s A game.
NJ Transit tweeted that it “can’t wait to take customers to the FIFA World Cup final!” Its Meadowlands rail service can move about 10,000 people an hour in or out of the venue to the rail junction at Secaucus. But the agency has made some spectacular fumbles — like the 2014 Super Bowl and Wrestlemania 2019 — stranding angry crowds for hours. Back then, Gov. Phil Murphy said, “We’re fixing it. We’re going to learn from this and I’ll be damned if it happens again.”
Murphy says the transit agency has redeemed itself, lately handling Taylor Swift and K-pop concert crowds with relative agility.
“It’s a dramatically different NJ Transit today than it was ten years ago … and will be even stronger in 2 1/2 years,” Murphy said this week. “You’ll see a consistent performance. Whatever energies that NJ Transit put into what I just said, it’ll be that on steroids.”
NJ Transit is planning to build a new Meadowlands Transitway. It will run along government-owned land — including the New Jersey Turnpike — and move 12,000 people an hour for seven miles between the Secaucus Junction Station and MetLife Stadium.
Planning advocate Zoe Baldwin said NJ Transit’s performance will be crucial. “Because while NJ Transit did a really good job during Taylor Swift and Beyoncé — and those are huge events — they still pale in comparison to the size of a worldwide event like World Cup,” she said.
An NJ Transit spokesman said “it’s much too premature to share specific details regarding the operational plan. However, please be assured that the planning is well underway and … NJ TRANSIT is confident that the travel experience to and from MetLife Stadium will meet, and exceed, the expectations of all those choosing to use public transit.”
“What New Jerseyans deserve is good and reliable and expanded transportation options, not just for the World Cup but all year long — to get to work, to get to school, to get to where they need to go,” said Jaqi Cohen of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
