NJ Transit said this month that train tickets to MetLife Stadium for the World Cup would cost $150 — more than 10 times the normal price
That’s the infuriating part. WTF are they doing?
NJT tickets are normally subsidized by the state government. The Governor asked FIFA to chip in, so the taxpayers aren’t footing the bill for the extra Wold Cup traffic. FIFA refused, so NJT is taking it out on the attendees. (And no, no one believes the state is normally subsidizing $135 per train ticket, this is just revenge for FIFA’s “You should be thankful we’re giving you a game” attitude.)
This is crazy. Isn’t the point of having FIFA in your city is to increase tourism and tax revenue? Now they want the increased tourist and tax but doesn’t want the extra burden?
That’s what some people claim. If I remember correctly, it was determined that these large scale prestigious events are a net negative.
Just a few posts down my lemmy stream:
Isn’t that, like, all transit though? If the RV show is in town I wouldn’t expect them to pay for transit either.
World cup is probably a bigger surge than the RV show.
Which means more ridership (ticket revenue) and more tax revenue going into the area through other means, like hotels.
Surely whatever logistics they use for NFL games can also be used here? How much more of a crowd could they be expecting?
Gouging.
IIRC the Meadowlands Stadium train is a special one-stop line from Secaucus. And that whole area is a big, marshy mess. Look at a map just west of NYC. You will see a big patch of urban area (Jersey City / Hoboken / Etc), and then to the west of that a huge patch of green. If there was any possible way to develop that land, they would. And they put the stadium right on the north end of that.
They simply didn’t design it to be accessible on foot, only by train and car. So NJT can charge whatever it wants, because the alternative is to pay to park there.
But in other events they can figure out how to run it charging 90% less, or if you use Trump math 1000% less?
Many of those other events are Jets games, though, and Jets fans have suffered enough…
Wouldn’t another possibility be active fare dodging? And if they do that, can’t they just fill the station and trains with so many people until they are forced to run the train to manage the crowd? I imagine all able people will go piggyback through turnstiles to half the fare at least.
In terms of potentially fineable behavior, this might be safer than creating an ad hoc ped xing on an interstate.
Maybe the NJ locals need to weigh in on how likely the constabulary will be to make use of their firearms in such a situation.
Wouldn’t another possibility be active fare dodging?
All train access is a scan and turnstile. Scan ticket to get in. Two through triggers an alarm, holding it open triggers an alarm. Cops are all over the place on normal days.
Not going to be an issue I’m sure.
I hope they walk as a big crowd
Enshittification
wow xD
