New Jersey has made no secret of how it feels about what it says are extra costs imposed on its public transit system because of the World Cup. There are eight matches scheduled there, including the final in July.
The fourth one, Ecuador against Germany, is happening on Thursday, again with workday rush-hour implications.
NJ Transit has an exhaustive match-day plan in place that shuts down New York Penn Station to non-World Cup ticketholders for the four hours leading up to kickoff and the three hours following the match.
The agency planned for the capacity to shuttle 40,000 World Cup ticketholders round-trip between New York Penn Station and NY/NJ Stadium each match day, based, according to NJ Transit President and CEO Kris Kolluri, on estimates from the American Dream Mall, which sold event parking, and from FIFA.
Those estimates proved inaccurate, Kolluri told reporters Thursday.
“As a result, the draconian procedure of shutting down Penn Station for hours at a time at great expense may not have been necessary,” Kolluri said.
He said NJ Transit has been averaging 20,000 to 26,000 passengers per match — about half what it anticipated.
Ultimately, the transit agency says it is overspending by $2 million a game — so four matches are already gone. Another four would amount to losses of around $16 million, NJ Transit said.
Neither FIFA nor the American Dream Mall could immediately be reached for comment on the transit agency’s claim.
Asked about the money matters at an unrelated press conference Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul essentially blamed the sticker shock for lower-than-expected ridership. NJ Transit is charging $98 for round-trip rail tickets to FIFA World Cup matches. That’s cut from an initial ticket-price announcement of $150.
After Thursday’s game, the remaining match days set for NY/NJ Stadium are scheduled for June 27 and June 30, and July 5 and July 19.
