New Jersey Transit ran special service to MetLife Stadium eight times since the World Cup began without major incident, CEO Kris Kolluri said Sunday.
Kolluri said inside the agency's command center in the MetLife parking lot that "The curse of Super Bowl 2014 is over," and he spoke to reporters Sunday evening.
The agency said it carried fewer passengers than expected and blamed the shortfall on the unexpected availability of parking spaces at a nearby mall and a cheaper bus service subsidized by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
"Others blame New Jersey itself because Gov. Mikie Sherrill decided the state would charge soccer fans $98 to get to games," the article said.
The system ran without major meltdowns despite extreme weather that threatened to upend plans and affected other service.
Kolluri turned the interview into a pep talk for the squad as trains were coming and going from MetLife handling the remnants of World Cup fans; back in New York City there was a Yankees game and a Bon Jovi concert at Madison Square Garden, and a screen over his shoulder with video feeds from bus and train platforms across the region showed things working smoothly.
The agency is still figuring out how much the special World Cup service cost, which involved extraordinary measures including having 80 train cars available to whisk trains away from the stadium.