World Cup travel was smoother for Norway-Iraq at Boston Stadium – NBC Boston

Gameday traffic was expected to be a pain for the first local weekday World Cup match yesterday, but no major issues were reported.

Some fans who went to Boston Stadium to see Iraq take on Norway Tuesday said the MBTA wait times were dramatically shorter than they were expecting, which was a pleasant surprise after a rough start over the weekend for people who journeyed to see Haiti-Scotland on Saturday.

“Amazingly smooth,” one woman said of Tuesday’s travel. “We were expecting a lot of sort of chaos and mayhem and things to take a long time but it didn’t at all.”

“The reputation of the train is not good. Our experience was better,” one Norway fan said.

“It wasn’t bad,” one man said. “I think they learned from like the first week.”

Fans who took the MBTA to and from Norway’s 4-1 win over Iraq talked about their trip.

It wasn’t just the commuter rail that saw improvement, either. Many fans who drove to Foxborough said roads near the area were not crowded, in part due to MassDOT deploying a contraflow lane on Route 1, for allowing travel in the breakdown lane and opening the HOV lane on Interstate 93 south at 1 p.m.

And the hope is that it will only get better. The next big test is this Friday when Scotland plays Morocco in the stadium’s third match.