Amid backlash over World Cup parking and transportation, LA Metro offers a solution

5 min Click here to listen to this article Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. Ticket prices are just the start of the soaring expenses many fans will face while trying to watch World Cup games this summer. NJ Transit is charging $150 for round-trip tickets from Manhattan to the Meadowlands (the regular price is $12.60) for the World Cup final, while host committee shuttle buses will cost $80. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is demanding $80 to ride one of the 14 express trains on the 30-mile trip from downtown Boston to Foxborough for games at Gillette Stadium. That’s more than three times the normal price. Parking in Kansas City, meanwhile, will set you back by as much as $900, depending on the game and lot. U.S. soccer fans are outraged by FIFA’s ticket sale system that included high prices and poor seat locations that were revealed after the purchases were completed. In Southern California, however, it will cost $1.75 to get to SoFi Stadium on a combination of buses or trains from as far away as Claremont and Simi Valley. That’s also what it costs to get to the Inglewood venue on any other day of the year; only two of the 11 World Cup cities in the U.S. are offering less expensive public transportation. “We’re trying to make things convenient,” said Conan Cheung, the chief operations officer for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or LA Metro, the second-largest transit agency in the country, servicing more than 305 million riders in 2025. That’s a marked departure from the experience fans have reported ahead of this summer’s World Cup, which was marked by complaints over difficulty getting access to buy tickets, high ticket prices, shifts in seat locations after they were purchased, high fees and expensive game-day transportation. “There’s no standardized fare set across the board,” Cheung said of World Cup transportation. “We’ve made a commitment to keep our system accessible. The way we’re planning the entire program is to ensure that we support people from the minute they decide to come to L.A. for the World Cup. Workers are getting SoFi Stadium ready to host World Cup matches this summer. (Eduard Cauich / Los Angeles Times ) Advertisement “We also want to make sure that your excitement and your experience for the World Cup starts and ends on Metro.” LA Metro has been able to hold costs down in part because it received $9.6 million in funding from the $100 million Congress gave the Federal Transit Administration to support transportation to and from World Cup stadiums. LA Metro is adding about 300 buses to its regular fleet to handle the additional demand, with shuttles servicing nine direct routes to SoFi and various fan zones. Roughly 200 of those buses will lent to LA Metro from 11 regional transit agencies. Additional security officers also will be added. “I feel prepared,” Cheung said, “but you never know what’s going to happen. We’ve done enough major special events to know that you can do all the planning in the world, but you need to make sure that you have contingencies in place and you’re prepared to pivot at a moment’s notice.” The Trump administration is pushing FIFA to replace Iran with Italy in the World Cup. But how feasible is it to do that this close to the start of the tournament? A case in point: when Game 3 of last fall’s World Series went into extra innings, LA Metro immediately extended the operating hours for Metro buses and trains, ensuring people had rides home when the game ended just shy of midnight. “Part of our preparedness is going through tabletop exercises,” he said. “The point is to ensure that the flow from the parking, from the transit connection and walking up made sense and was intuitive and easy to follow.” Since Metro trains don’t run directly to SoFi, Cheung has added shuttle buses to take fans from the stations to the stadium. Portable restrooms and hydration stations will be available. And nine park-and-ride sites will be set up around L.A. and Orange counties. Reserve and pay for a parking space and everyone in your car can ride to the stadium for free. (Be sure to bring a lot of friends since the parking fees range from $59 to $102 for the June 12 opening match.) A pair of visitors from Japan rush to catch a Metro bus in March. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) Cheung said LA Metro has been preparing for the World Cup almost as long as some of the players. When Taylor Swift brought her Eras tour to SoFi in the summer of 2023, LA Metro used that as something of a dress rehearsal for the World Cup, expanding late service and adding free shuttles from nearby train stations. That increased ridership by 25%, which meant less traffic on the roads and freeways leading to the stadium. A repeat of that could be crucial during th

Amid backlash over World Cup parking and transportation, LA Metro offers a solution

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