NJ Transit plans to sell no more than 40,000 train tickets to each World Cup match in the Meadowlands, leaving tens of thousands of fans to rely on ride-hailing services or a still-unreleased shuttle bus plan to reach MetLife Stadium.

The agency’s leaders made that limit clear on Wednesday night, and noted it’s roughly half of the stadium’s capacity.

During a meeting held in Atlantic City, the NJ Transit board passed a resolution allowing its CEO, Kris Kolluri, unilateral authority to set prices, adjust schedules, issue contracts and buy insurance to support the agency’s “transportation services for the World Cup 2026 events” without further approval.

The resolution came two days before NJ Transit officials said they planned to join other World Cup organizers to release a “transportation mobility plan” for the games in the Meadowlands, including a “special FIFA ticket” for transit riders.

Kolluri said FIFA, the international organization that runs the World Cup, imposed security requirements on NJ Transit that ballooned the cost to run service to the games up to $48 million. He said he planned to increase the costs of train tickets to get to the games so that the security costs will “not be cross-subsidized by our regular commuters.”

“What makes this particularly challenging is it is a security event with soccer in it — and transportation happens to be part of it,” Kolluri told a Gothamist reporter who traveled to America’s Playground to cover the board meeting.

The Athletic on Tuesday reported officials planned to set the round-trip fare for Meadowlands trips out of New York Penn Station at more than $100, compared to the usual $12.90 price. During the debut episode of the "Ask Governor Sherrill" call-in show on WNYC on Wednesday night, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said she supported that price if it kept the costs from being put “on the backs of New Jerseyans.”

“When it comes to moving people into the game at the FIFA World Cup — and FIFA intends to make about $11 billion on this — they need to defray some of this cost,” Sherrill said.

A spokesperson for FIFA, in a statement to Gothamist late Wednesday night, said it was surprised by Sherrill's statements. It cited language in its agreement for host cities requiring fans to be able to access public or other planned transportation "at cost" to attend matches.

The spokesperson also said the sports organization wasn't aware of any time when other event organizers were required to pay for fan transportation to MetLife Stadium.

The World Cup is the most-watched sporting event in the world. New Jersey will host eight games over five weeks from June to July, including the championship match on July 19. Hundreds of thousands of spectators and tourists are expected to travel to the New York City area. This year’s tournament is also the largest in its history, expanding from 32 to 48 teams.

Kolluri said the 40,000 ticket limit was designed to avoid a repeat of the 2014 Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium, when thousands of attendees were left stranded at the Meadowlands for hours.

“One of the biggest challenges with the Super Bowl is there was an expectation at the last minute that we were going to carry more people than people were promised,” he said. “We are not ever going to put ourselves in that situation.”

Kolluri said riders who buy an NJ Transit ticket to the Meadowlands for the World Cup will have to prove they have a ticket to the games. He said the games have three “security perimeters," one at Penn Station, another at Secaucus Junction and the third at MetLife.

“We’re going to check every single ticket in and out,” Kolluri said. “If they don’t have a ticket … we are not letting you board.

“We care about the safety of the riding public," the CEO added. "We have committed to 40,000 [riders], and that’s what we’re going to do.”

NJ.com last week reported officials planned to close the NJ Transit area of Penn Station to regular riders four hours before each World Cup match.

FIFA security requirements have also forced the more than 23,000 parking spaces at MetLife Stadium to be off limits for attendees. Organizers have said general attendees must either take a cab, train or a shuttle bus to the games, or else pay for a parking spot at the nearby American Dream Mall, which connects to the stadium via a pedestrian walkway.

Given NJ Transit will only sell 40,000 tickets for each game, Kolluri said it’s up to FIFA and other local officials to figure out how to get the other half of the MetLife crowds in and out of the Meadowlands. The host committee for the games plans to release shuttle bus plans on Friday as part of their larger transportation plan.

The board resolution that gave Kolluri power to raise the fares to cover security costs also allows him to “take any actions deemed necessary and appropriate to provide” service to the World Cup matches.

Kolluri will be working with NJ Transit’s underlying train infrastructure, which has faced reliability issues in recent years.

The railroad has seen regular service shutdowns in and out of Penn Station over the last three years due to problems with the overhead wires that power trains. Amtrak, which owns the wires, has blamed the problems on faulty equipment atop NJ Transit trains, and NJ Transit officials have put the blame on Amtrak.

Officials lauded the quality of train service during two marquee shows at MetLife Stadium in the last several years, citing improvements to their operations strategy for big events. During the summer of 2023, Taylor Swift performed two sold-out shows with minimal to no service disruptions. Similar marks were given for the summer of 2025, when Beyoncé performed at the venue.