Why Super Bowl Transit Math Didn't Add Up

The Monday morning quarterbacking of New Jersey Transit's game day performance has stretched into the week.

Despite billing the game early on as the "first mass transit Super Bowl," officials seemed caught off guard by the numbers of people who took the train to the game. The NFL had estimated that NJ Transit's Secaucus-to-the-Meadowlands rail link would take 16,000 people to and from MetLife stadium. It wound up taking 29,000 people there and 34,000 home, leading to huge crowds and long waits to board the train.

One reason behind the disconnect: many more people bought parking permits and seats on shuttle buses than actually used them — about 18,000 people, all of whom moved over to rail.

At the end of the night, NJ Transit wound up deploying buses to get people home, which led some transportation experts to wonder: why not use a combination of rail and bus from the get go? Especially since the stadium is just minutes away from the Lincoln Tunnel, with its dedicated bus lane capable of getting tens of thousands of people into the city each hour. ..............................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.wnyc.org/story/why-super-bowl-transit-math-didnt-add/