Transit Agencies Rise to Challenge of Moving Millions During 2026 FIFA World Cup

Santa Clara VTA

Santa Clara VTA started planning for the World Cup in 2024 as part of its mega events planning initiative for not only the World Cup, but Super Bowl LX that took place in February 2026. Both events took place at Levi’s Stadium (known as San Francisco Bay Area Stadium for the World Cup) in Santa Clara, Calif.

According to Santa Clara VTA Public Information Officer Stacey Hendler Ross, since the stadium already hosted Super Bowl 50 a decade earlier in 2016, the agency leaned on that experience when planning for not only Super Bowl LX, but the World Cup. She also noted the agency carried riders to the stadium for a Taylor Swift concert in 2023, and so the agency already had a grasp on how to move a massive crowd in reasonable time.

Along with Santa Clara, the city of San Jose hosted events for the World Cup, including fan festivals. Ross notes the challenge with the World Cup was the rules for trains coming to the stadium.

“Because of security restrictions, we were not allowed to bring our trains in front of the stadium, so we couldn’t run the trains from the east side [the Lick Mill Station] to the Great America Station, which is on the west side of the stadium,” Ross said.

With the restrictions in place, the agency had to run trains only to the Lick Mill Station from the east and to the Great America Station from the west.

“Serving those two separate stations was a very different situation that we had to plan carefully for in terms of how many trains would be assigned to each station,” Ross noted.

In terms of extra security for the World Cup, Santa Clara VTA hosted law enforcement agencies and transit agencies from throughout the Bay Area for a conference on human trafficking approximately eight months before the event. During the World Cup, the agency had increased security from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department throughout the system, as well as Allied Universal, a private security company the agency uses for massive events, patrolling stations and transit systems.

Ross notes the agency had “one or two false alarms” where security personnel had to check a suspicious package that was left on the train, but there were no arrests.

In terms of wayfinding, the agency worked closely with the other 27 agencies in the area on a regular basis to ensure riders could easily identify logos and signs in various languages. According to Ross, in Santa Clara VTA’s Customer Service Department, staff there have the ability to tap into almost any language in the world. 

The agency also had ambassadors in the field who were multilingual. If the ambassador didn’t speak the specific language that someone needed, the ambassador would refer the person to customer service.

Levi’s Stadium hosted six matches for the World Cup. Ross says the agency was expecting a high of around 30,000 passengers, but the agency carried a max ridership of 42,000. Ross notes the standard to clear platforms during NFL games is two hours, and with more people riding to Levi’s Stadium for the World Cup, platforms were cleared in approximately 90 minutes. 

BART 

BART’s service areas were not a World Cup host site. Instead, the agency played a role in helping riders transfer to Santa Clara VTA and/or Caltrain via BART’s Millbrae Station and making sure that all services aligned to get riders to Levi’s Stadium in time for the matches.  

Marshalette Ramsey, BART’s operations control center manager, notes one of the unique service changes the agency made for the World Cup was creating service post-revenue hours, due to most of the matches taking place in the evening.

“Instead of dropping fans off and leaving them to their own devices, BART came up with a limited service plan to be able to get everyone home at the end of the night,” Ramsey said. “We collaborated with [Santa Clara] VTA to make sure when they ran their last shuttle, we were there to transfer those fans and get them back home. That’s a little outside of our normal service area.”

Ramsey explains that with the service changes, BART changed its maintenance schedule during the 39-day event, as the times trains were running on match days were times maintenance crews would usually be working. Due to the high demand, staff worked extra hours and more trains were in service.

The first match at Levi’s Stadium took place on June 16. For that first match day, BART had what Ramsey detailed as limited stop service, resulting in riders who were parking their cars at certain stations close to Milpitas Station being skipped as part of BART’s original service plan. After the first match, the agency received feedback and implemented a new service plan that covered the areas that were skipped within three days. 

In terms of wayfinding, the agency made sure its maps on service plans showed images of stations. Additional support personnel camped out at Millbrae Station to help riders navigate. Making payment methods contactless and accessible through a mobile app throughout each of the California host agencies was also a big goal. 

“We worked together with not only our marketing team, but other regional agencies to make sure the same color palette, the same imagery was consistent throughout all of our signs,” Ramsey noted. “We did not want riders to have a full-on culture shock that they were attending the same event but using multiple, different agencies.”

The marketing teams of the transit agencies still meet quarterly now that the World Cup has concluded to better their collaboration efforts.