The FIFA World Cup Football tournament is over, and NJ Transit apparently performed well on the operating side, although questions remain about ridership and revenue on the special trains for the fans.
There was a great deal of apprehension because of the disaster that followed the Super Bowl game in 2014, when it took hours to clear the stadium. This time there were random glitches, especially when a major storm knocked out service on the Morris & Essex and other rail lines on Sunday, July 5. Still, no major operational problems were reported, even though Penn Station and Secaucus were off-limits to “regular” riders. They were required to take PATH trains from either Hoboken or Newark Penn Station to 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue, one block from NY Penn Station, adding about 30 minutes to travel time for a one-way trip, which Hoboken riders did regularly until 1996.
Ridership on the special trains to and from the stadium and revenue from that service were low. Gov. Mikie Sherrill and NJT leaders had said that they did not want the system’s riders or the state’s taxpayers to be on the hook for the $48 million that it cost New Jersey to host the matches, so the original plan was to sell 40,000 round-trip.tickets for each of the 8 matches for $150.00 per ticket Corporate contributions reduced that to $105.00 and then to $98.00 (the “regular” adult fare to or from New York Penn Station is $13.20).
Actual ridership never came close to the anticipated 40,000 tickets per match. Instead, it averaged 23,276; only 58.4% of anticipated riders and revenue, leaving a shortfall of $13,051,052. On September 1, Colleen Wilson reported in the Gannett newspapers details from an August 24th memo by NJT CFO Jacqueline Stamford, exclusively obtained by NorthJersey.com, stating that the loss was just $4 million, and that they realized a 93% cost recovery, which even NJT President/CEO Kolluri calls “unprecedented”.
On July 21, after the tournament was over, NJT and other transportation agencies in the State issued a report titled New Jersey Interagency Transportation After Action Report (AAR) at NJNY Stadium – FIFA World Cup Operation. It congratulated NJT and the other agencies for a successful operation, but acknowledged: “Based on the collected performance metrics, NJ TRANSIT believes future events at the stadium should not require transportation commitments exceeding 20,000 passengers within a two-hour operating window. The stadium’s suburban location and an anchored regional suburban mall with a combined 28,000 parking spaces, will continue to generate substantial private vehicle demand and associated parking requirements. As such, the area is not expected to evolve into a truly transit-oriented environment. While transit will remain a travel option, the continued car-centric nature of this facility and the characteristics of the regional travel market make a predominantly mass-transit-based operation unlikely.” So the operation went well, but there was also a financial shortfall and some “lessons learned” for the future.
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