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EAST RUTHERFORD — As the clock struck 7:50 p.m. on the evening of July 19, the bulk of Argentina and Spain fans had said their farewells to New York New Jersey Stadium. The World Cup trophy was surely being kissed, touched and passed around by the winning Spaniards.
But in a small trailer smelling of hours-old vinegary salad dressing and surrounded by stacks of pizza and sandwich boxes, NJ Transit President and CEO Kris Kolluri had an announcement to make to the room of train dispatchers and executive staff members carefully watching TV screens as cameras tracked crowd movements, trains and traffic.
“The curse of 2014 Super Bowl is over,” Kolluri said. “Not only did we successfully do it, we did it eight times.”
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What followed was a speech befitting any long-shot team that fought against the odds to take on the glory of sweet success.
“This is the kind of stuff you dream of, but the only reason why this worked is because of the extraordinary team who knew we were the underdog and we were not going to let each other down,” Kolluri said. “If you ever want to see what fight and grit looks like, you see it right in front of you.”
The team fought through record heat waves, historic thunderstorms, competing events such as the 250th national anniversary and the New York Knicks Finals win, and political firestorms brewing to fund, plan and execute the world’s largest sporting spectacle.
But hovering over NJ Transit was something much more personal: a haunting reputation from 2014, when the Super Bowl was held at the Meadowlands sports complex.
When the Seahawks-Broncos game ended on a late, snowy Sunday evening, the train spur was inundated with 35,000 fans, well over the 28,000 who took the train to the game and leaps and bounds past the 12,000 who planners estimated would use the service.
As a result, fans waited hours outside and on platforms to get home, though they were all safely moved on a rail system between MetLife Stadium and Secaucus Junction station designed to carry no more than 12,000 people an hour.
What followed were raging headlines, an outcry and an investigation spurred by legislators seeking an explanation for what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again.
Sixteen years later, NJ Transit moved on average 24,000 people on each of the eight matches held at MetLife Stadium over the last two months. Though it was little more than half of the 40,000 fans it was expected to move during each of the eight matches, the agency performed almost flawlessly.
On the day of the World Cup final, the agency transported 21,024 people, predictably fewer than other matches, as Kolluri expected the patrons who could afford World Cup final tickets — which were averaging in the five-digits — to prefer black car service.
For the most part, those who splurged for NJ Transit’s $98 shuttle ticket were rewarded with convenience and ease, and they avoided the traffic felt by many on the roads.
Navin Gupta drove to all seven of the prior World Cup matches but decided to take the Long Island Rail Road and switch to NJ Transit at New York Penn Station for the final to avoid the traffic headache.
“We just heard Donald Trump is coming … the amount of celebrities,” Gupta said, “and so far, so good,” he said around 11 a.m., four hours before the match started.
Indeed, Trump’s presence had an impact on the transportation equation Sunday. When his or the first lady’s motorcade arrived or left the stadium, a “freeze” went into place, stopping traffic on the roads and rails nearby.
When the president arrived, the freeze was around 30 minutes. That led to people fleeing vehicles stopped on the road and running across highways to reach the isolated stadium settled on North Jersey marshland. When he left, the pause was just 10 minutes.
Zara, who was visiting from Dubai with her family and declined to provide her last name, said they chose NJ Transit because “it was the easiest thing, closest to our hotel."
She said coming and going on public transportation went well Sunday.
“It’s been pretty smooth, very efficient, easy to navigate,” she said.
Tomas Pereda, in town from Spain, said he heard about the long queues for the $20 bus shuttles and opted for NJ Transit.
“Super good, very fast and efficient,” he said, before adding, “a bit expensive.”
That convenience and ease existed because of the people at NJ Transit who planned to make the experience happen, Kolluri said.
“These are folks who work the system every day, while they’ve kept planning on executing this for three years — that’s how you do it,” he said.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ Transit says 'curse of 2014 Super Bowl' over after World Cup showing
