Politics

NJ Transit achieves its World Cup goooal!

Published

20 hours ago

July 20, 2026

There was another World Cup victory on Sunday — for one of the nation’s largest transit agencies.

New Jersey Transit, which became infamous for disarray outside MetLife Stadium following the 2014 Super Bowl, carried soccer fans on its buses and trains there and back eight times since the World Cup began — without major incident.

For anyone in the New York City metropolitan area used to experiencing or hearing gripes about New Jersey’s transit system — which a former governor repeatedly promised to fix, even if it killed him — this was as surprising as almost anything that happened on the soccer pitch.

“The curse of Super Bowl 2014 is over,” New Jersey Transit CEO Kris Kolluri said Sunday evening during an interview inside the agency’s command center in the MetLife parking lot.

That Super Bowl featured extreme delays getting American football fans in and out of the New Jersey swamp where the stadium is located.

During this soccer tournament, the agency did end up carrying fewer passengers than expected, and the reasons for that remain up for debate. The agency has blamed the unexpected availability of parking spaces for fans at a nearby mall, as well as a cheaper bus service subsidized by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. Others blame New Jersey itself because Gov. Mikie Sherrill decided the state would charge soccer fans $98 to get to games.

Whatever the case, the system ran without any major meltdowns during matches despite some extreme weather that threatened to upend plans and affected other service.

Kolluri, who spoke with reporters while surrounded by some of his team that’s been working on the World Cup for several years, turned the interview into a pep talk for the squad. As he spoke, trains were coming and going from MetLife handling the remnants of World Cup fans and, back in New York City — where most people were heading — there was a Yankees game and Bon Jovi concert at Madison Square Garden. Still, a screen over his shoulder with video feeds from bus and train platforms across the region showed things working smoothly.

“The only reason why this worked is because of an extraordinary team who knew we were the underdog, and we were not going to let each other down,” Kolluri said.

The agency is still figuring out how much it cost to provide the special World Cup service, which involved extraordinary measures, including having 80 train cars available to whisk trains away from the stadium.

Politics

Nancy Mace won’t run for Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat

Published

55 seconds ago

July 20, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Firebrand Republican Rep. Nancy Mace announced Monday that she will not run for the South Carolina Senate seat held by the late Lindsey Graham.

“I’m not running for the U.S. Senate, not because I’m backing down from a fight, but because the one I’m already in matters right now,” she said in a video announcement.

Her decision comes after a fifth-place primary finish in her run for governor earlier this year and as the race to succeed Graham is already taking shape.

Mace began exploring the viability of a potential bid just hours after Graham’s death became public, two people familiar with her thinking told Blue Light News at the time, but decided against a second statewide bid in as many months.

Her decision effectively guarantees she will not be serving in elected office once her term ends early next year.