NJ Transit prepares for influx of fans as MetLife Stadium is set to host 2026 World Cup final
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (WABC) -- The New Jersey Transit station at the Meadowlands Sports Complex Monday afternoon was quiet, but when the 2026 FIFA World Cup arrives at MetLife Stadium it promises to be quiet the scene.
"I think with a massive influx of people they're probably going to need to work overtime for it to actually work, but honestly I'm excited to see how it goes," said NJ Transit rider Tayo Amusan.
New Jersey Transit faired rather poorly back in 2014 after the first so-called "Mass Transit Super Bowl," where the Seattle Seahawks dominated the Denver Broncos and tens of thousands of football fans dominated the station infrastructure -- leading to hours long waits and the agency bringing in buses to shuttle people to the Port Authority instead.
Commuters on Monday hope a lesson was learned that day.
"I can just imagine so many people will be traveling from all over the world and it'll just be crazy," said Jenna Fay.
"I think that they probably won't make it work," said Josh Kalet. "It'll be interesting."
A $35 million Transitway project is in the final planning stages to build a new bus corridor between the Secaucus Junction transit hub and MetLife.
New Jersey Govenor Phil Murphy is confident they'll be ready.
"A lot of the stuff that you would expect us to be working on has already started," assured Gov. Murphy. "That's going to include some minor configuration at MetLife stadium itself, it'll include transportation, clearly security is a big element as you can imagine."
Plus, Gov. Murphy points out if MetLife could handle three nights of Taylor Swift concerts like it did last year, he believes it can also handle the World Cup.
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