$150 for a 15-minute train ride
Come on now
Last April, NJ Transit officials dropped a bombshell. Round-trip tickets from New York Penn Station to MetLife Stadium for World Cup games would cost $150 a piece. No discounts would be given for children or anyone else. That’s $150 for a 15-minute ride that covers all of 9 miles. The fare is usually $12.90. Due to the immediate outrage, the ticket price was lowered to $105. Then $98. One suspects this may have been the plan all along, to begin with a very crazy price to make a less extreme but still crazy price more palatable. Boston followed suit, announcing that train tickets from Boston to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough would cost $80, quadruple the $20 fans usually pay to attend New England Patriots games.
There are some good reasons for the price increases. Hosting the World Cup is a demanding task. FIFA has many requirements that host cities need to follow. Still, one has to wonder how the state of New Jersey plans to spend a claimed $60 million transporting fans to the tournament. MetLife Stadium has a capacity of 82,500 and is hosting eight World Cup games. Assuming that every person were to take public transit and every game is sold out, that equates to $90 in costs per person per ride. To take people a total of 18 miles. It’s hard to take these people seriously.
Part of the reason for the pinch is that there won’t be much traditional parking for fans. For reasons unclear to me, FIFA has severely limited the parking availability. Due to “security concerns,” only a few of the 23,000 parking spaces at MetLife will be available to fans. Never mind that MetLife has hosted plenty of high-profile events previously, including the Super Bowl and several Taylor Swift Eras Tour concerts.
The economic arguments for charging these extreme prices are straightforward. This World Cup is unlike any other. At other World Cups locals could buy tickets relatively easily. This World Cup has extreme prices. To see many games in the United States, fans can expect to shell out hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. There has never been a soccer tournament like this. Clearly, many of those attending are relatively affluent, or at least have money to burn. Second, groups like NJ Transit know that a lot of the fans are coming from out of town. They are not New Jerseyans going to or from work, or New Jerseyans at all. Given the limited parking, it makes sense from an economic perspective to charge a lot of money.
There are two problems with using this argument, however.
The first is itself economic: competition. Noticing that $98 for less than 20 miles is exorbitant, several other groups have sensed a moneymaking possibility. The State of New York stepped in, initially with its own $80 bus that would pick up at various points in New York City. This prompted it’s own chorus of howls from affronted New Yorkers, who reasonably expect their sky-high taxes to pay for regular-priced services. The State retreated and announced that the new bus price would be $20, and that a fifth of the seats would be reserved for New York residents.
Uber also noticed an opportunity to make a quick buck. The ride-sharing company announced it would offer buses from various New York City pickup points to MetLife for $49. It goes without saying that when Uber, one of the more reviled companies in the US, is undercutting public transportation, something isn’t right.
Given the State of New York and Uber’s alternatives, NJ Transit risks being left with serious egg on its face. If the state really is spending $60 million on World Cup infrastructure (it isn’t), then it does need to recoup a lot of that investment and have trains packed with farepayers. If those trains travel mostly empty and fans choose alternative options, then charging such a high fare will backfire.
The second, more important problem with charging $98 for a short train ride isn’t economic; it’s existential. Public transportation is not justified based on supply and demand. Government employees are not trying to maximize profits or minimize costs when designing routes and setting fares. Public transportation is meant to provide the public with an affordable way of traveling from A to B while reducing congestion.
There are many, many bus and train routes that are far from capacity. These routes cost millions of taxpayer dollars per year. When small-government types bring this up and advocate for cutting routes, the response is that public transit is not meant to make money. That many half-empty buses serve low-income areas, and while they may not be full, those on them need those routes to get to work or other necessary appointments.
By attempting to charge a market rate for high-income riders, NJ Transit risks undermining the raison d’être of its existence. If the Penn Station to MetLife route needs to recoup costs, why not other routes? If the taxpayer can’t be expected to subsidize sports fans, why should they be expected to subsidize anyone else?
Other governments understand this. Far from charging inflated prices, transit authorities in other countries have recently gone the other direction. Fans who bought tickets to see the World Cup in Qatar were given free access to Doha’s metro system for the entire tournament. During the 2024 UEFA Euro tournament in Germany, all tickets included free public transit on the day of the match. This attitude helps people buy into the idea that public transit should be for everyone, and encourages fans who can afford to drive to instead take the train.
It’s easy to mentally carve out fans who paid thousands of dollars to watch grown men kick a ball around. To say they should pay nearly $100 for a short train ride. Those who support public transit should be wary of this argument. Once that box is open, it will be expanded. People will begin to question why the state should subsidize some riders while charging others through the nose. If the World Cup fans can be charged high prices, maybe others should as well. If World Cup routes need to recoup their costs, then so too should others. It’s not worth undermining a pillar of public transit to make a few bucks on gameday.