The big news yesterday was that one side completely dominated the other. The Antiplanner doesn’t mean Seattle vs. Denver, but buses vs. trains.
This was supposed to be the mass transit Superbowl. Some dimwit dedicated more than half of the stadium’s parking lot to security and television equipment. The stadium–the largest in the NFL–normally hosts 80,000 people several times a year. But for the Superbowl, most ticket holders were supposed to go the big game by transit.
Eager to cash in on people willing to spend thousands of dollars for a seat at the game, New Jersey Transit generously offered gridiron fans rides on its trains for a mere $50. The NFL also chartered numerous buses to the stadium.
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The trains, however were a disaster. New Jersey Transit reported record ticket sales, but one problem with setting a record on a system with fixed capacity is that it is very easy to exceed that capacity. People ended up having waiting 90 minutes to board trains, and some people collapsed and required paramedical care due to overheating. Apparently, $50 for a train ticket doesn’t buy you air conditioning.
This is just one more proof that trains are not “high-capacity transit.” Not that we needed more proof. Remember when Obama was inaugurated in 2009? Metro had to shut down the escalators on its subway stations near the mall because they were moving more people into the train stations than the trains could move out, and Metro was afraid people would be pushed onto the tracks. In other words, escalators have a higher capacity than subways.
Buses, unlike trains, use shared infrastructure, can go on a variety of alternate routes, and start from a variety of origins. This makes it possible for buses to move far more people in and out of a stadium or other event location much faster than trains.
“Buses, unlike trains, use share infrastructure, can go on a variety of alternate routes, and start from a variety of origins. This makes it possible for buses to move far more people in and out of a stadium or other event location much faster than trains.”
This is the heart of the analysis, it is trivial reasoning in the mathematical sense, and it seems impossible to pound into the heads of the various varieties of train nuts, from LRT to Amtrak lovers.
Similar reasoning applies to air traffic. There, the sources and sinks are fixed points, but the sheaf of possible routes is much larger. And yet we still have people demanding subsidies for long distance passenger train service.
And before the usual suspects chime in with “but roads get subsidized too” let me say that I am opposed to all subsidies for anything. If the poor need help, give them the cash and let them decide how to travel.
The Antiplanner skipped over the fact that the delays in arrival forced the stadium to stop airport-style security screening at the stadium, so the Super Bowl was not secure despite all the promises and planning to make it so. That was probably a good idea for safety as a large crowd missing the Super Bowl start would be a dangerous crowd. But it shows yet again how planning and reality are two different worlds.
It’s not a bus / rail thing. It’s a poor planning thing, and NJ Transit should have done better. I remember attending a U2 concert at the Rose Bowl, where they were telling everyone to take shuttle buses. It was also a nightmare after the concert, with waits of 2+ hours because they did not have enough buses. Considering that 1 train carrying 1,500 people can carry as many passengers as 30 buses carrying 50 people, it should have been better. How can you not plan to use both your station platforms?
I second transitboy’s comment.
The NJT station has three platforms at Meadowlands; on a Sunday there should have been more than enough equipment to operate trains every 2-3 minutes and having one or two trains always in the station loading. Bad event planning, not anything to do with mode, per se, regardless of The Antiplanner’s demonstrated hatred for trains operating in the 21st Century (well, excluding trains that have been relegated to historic displays or tourist operations, I suppose).
No, this is not the trains vs. buses example you’re looking for. The train trip to the stadium required fans to transfer at Secaucus Junction. This bottleneck became a full on blockage when thousands of fans arrived at the transfer point well before the second leg trains even began running. The jam compounded as the day went on.
After the game, neither the trains or the buses fared too well.
I have been stuck in a many-hour traffic jam after leaving an event at the old Giants Stadium, and there’s little good that can be said about that area of the Meadowlands, traffic or transit-wise. The road and rail infrastructure seem equally decrepit and inadequate. Given the paltry distances actually involved it makes me wonder why they didn’t let people simply walk to the event.
According to post-game media reports, the problem wasn’t poor planning but that New Jersey Transit was simply overwhelmed by numbers. You can call that poor planning, but the reality is that rail capacities are far more limited than buses, which was shown by the fact that the agency finally solved the problem of long waits after the game by chartering buses to move people out of the stadium.
“You can get out of any stadium in 45 minutes to an hour,” said one gridiron fan. “We are at three hours just to get here,” and it took until 1 am to get the last fans out after the game.
The Antiplanner wrote:
This was supposed to be the mass transit Superbowl. Some dimwit dedicated more than half of the stadium’s parking lot to security and television equipment. The stadium–the largest in the NFL–normally hosts 80,000 people several times a year. But for the Superbowl, most ticket holders were supposed to go the big game by transit.
Unlike most NFL stadiums, the Giants and the Jets play their home games at MetLife Stadium in North Jersey, so there are 16 home games (and they usually sell out) and an indeterminate number of other events played there. So (at least in theory), N.J. Transit should have had plenty of experience getting football fans in out of the NFL stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
The buses turned out to work great, coming and going “without incident, with fans calmly boarding three or four at a time before they took off and several minutes later replaced with more.”
Buses are much more flexible, and were able to take advantage of adjacent interchanges with I-95 (New Jersey Turnpike) and N.J. Route 3.
Fred_Z wrote:
And before the usual suspects chime in with “but roads get subsidized too” let me say that I am opposed to all subsidies for anything. If the poor need help, give them the cash and let them decide how to travel.
The main highway serving the area is the New Jersey Turnpike, which is largely funded by tolls paid by its customers, not New Jersey and federal taxpayers.
Ohai wrote:
I have been stuck in a many-hour traffic jam after leaving an event at the old Giants Stadium, and there’s little good that can be said about that area of the Meadowlands, traffic or transit-wise. The road and rail infrastructure seem equally decrepit and inadequate. Given the paltry distances actually involved it makes me wonder why they didn’t let people simply walk to the event.
No transportation infrastructure is going to empty out instantly a facility that seats 80,000 customers. Not by highway and not by mass transit. But in general, buses, because of their load carrying capacity and flexibility, would probably do the job the best.
AIUI the buses were $50. Everyone said “I’m not going to be gouged that price” and took the train.
DS
Dan,
The trains were also $50. You couldn’t get into the stadium without buying either a $50 bus or a $50 train ticket or paying $150 to park (if you were lucky enough to reserve a parking space). People who took taxis to the stadium were forced to buy a bus ticket to get in.
Price gouging is one thing. But the issue here is capacity, and trains don’t have it.
I came back late to read the comments by the assembled wise men, and was struck by the idea that pedestrians were banned or forced to pay. The pecking order has been established – train passengers at the top, then bus passengers, then pedestrians.
I agree. I always thought train users were big peckers.
I also loved the idea that pedestrians had to buy a bus ticket to get in. Tax those walkative bastards, make those ramblers pay! Nice change from taxing car drivers to oblivion.
And where was the outrage from the resident lefties? I thought you loved pedestrians above all? And why no special sooper dooper exemption for bicycles. Pshaw.
Randal, I’m just reading the paper and some blog reports, so no first hand knowledge, and in exactly zero of the reports do I see that the train was 50.00, equal to the fare of the private coaches-buses. Add to the issue that no dropoffs or pickups by POV-taxi. And for whatever reason, transit authorities didn’t think to schedule more connecting transport during peak. Plus, for whatever reason transit authorities thought folks would want to pay 50.00 for a private coach over the train, so they underestimated train needs.
So right off you have a gouging private fare that made folk want to take the train. Connecting transport wasn’t provided. It goes downhill from there.
DS
Just to add to my comments about how multi-year advanced planning with an essentially unlimited budget, a “Level One” DHS security event in front of the largest TV audience in US history, in the metro area of 9/11, was completely inadequate nonetheless….
1. As I said before, the “airport type security” search of ticket holders had to be given up because of the transportation errors in planning.
2. The computer user name and password into the security system was shown on national TV.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/cbs-accidentally-broadcasts-super-bowl-security-wi-fi-012607640–nfl.html
3. A blogger used old media credentials to go through all the security, and then just to have fun, interrupted the post-game press conference of the Super Bowl MVP.
http://deadspin.com/9-11-truther-sneaked-into-super-bowl-by-telling-securit-1514834347
This was probably the most planned high security event in history, in an isolated location, and with 16+ rehearsals per year for several years.
The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray….
“AIUI the buses were $50. Everyone said ‘I’m not going to be gouged that price’ and took the train.”
A quick Google search reveals that both trains and buses were $50, with a caveat: that was a SuperPass good for the week.
And I doubt anyone who can afford $2500 for a ticket to the game would complain about $50 for transportation.
N.Y. Post op-ed: NJ Transit’s Super Bowl disaster
The Super Bowl was as much of a disaster for NJ Transit as for the Denver Broncos — and a window onto the dysfunction of New Jersey government.
The transit agency had three years to prepare for the Super Bowl crowds, yet on game day it let down thousands of fans from across the country, stranding them for hours in the Secaucus transit hub before the game and at MetLife Stadium until the wee hours of the morning afterward. The snafus prompted spontaneous chants of “New Jersey sucks” from the crowd.
This is merely the latest embarrassment for an agency that Gov. Christie himself labeled as a patronage mill when he took office — and apparently hasn’t changed much.
Mind you, the local host committee and NJ Transit had both advertised this event as the world’s “first mass-transit Super Bowl.” Transporting fans by the tens of thousands was a necessity thanks to MetLife Stadium’s isolated site and the NFL’s security operations, which used up much of the facility’s parking on gameday. To compensate, NJ Transit prepared offsite parking with shuttle buses to supplement the existing rail link between the Secaucus transfer station and the stadium.
Dan said
AIUI the buses were $50. Everyone said “I’m not going to be gouged that price” and took the train
——————–
Wait, this is the Super Bowl many of the Fans paid thousands for their seats, pulse their travel to the event.
They had three years to plan how to move people and look how badly it worked out.
All this happened despite the weather being perfect – practically a miracle.
What would have happened if it snowed like it started to do less than 10 hours later – it would have turned into a disaster, with bodies piled up in snowbanks, etc
On second thought, maybe they planned on bad weather – so they could use the weather as an excuse for their incompetence. Good weather showed that they were completely unprepared.
This article clears up some of the bad information in this thread. In particular:
The train was the least expensive option to get to the stadium at $10.50, compared with the $51 bus ticket and the $150 parking pass.