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NJ Transit is struggling to sell $98 tickets on the Ripoff Express trains (not their official name) meant to take World Cup attendees from New York's Penn Station to MetLife Stadium.
According to a (paywalled) report from The Athletic out earlier this week, less than 6% of the available $98 round-trip train tickets have been purchased. The expectation heading into this World Cup was that 40,000 people per match would ride NJ Transit trains to reach "New York/New Jersey Stadium," but as of Monday, only around 17,000 tickets had been sold across all eight scheduled matches in New Jersey.
Both New Jersey and New York government officials are going to great lengths to make it as easy as possible for attendees to get from midtown Manhattan out to the Meadowlands, but New Jersey appears to have botched its rail offering.
They'll be closing Penn Station and the streets around it to everyone but World Cup attendees in the hours around when World Cup matches kick off in New Jersey, but how many people will really be there ready to take the train?
