NJ Transit’s $16 million World Cup miss and 21% fare hike land on a CEO who now runs both the agency and the Turnpike Authority.
Commuters at New York Penn Station paid 3% more for NJ Transit tickets on Tuesday, the latest in a series of yearly hikes that has raised fares 21% above their 2024 levels. Hours earlier, an overhead wire failure near Newark Broad Street had knocked out Morris & Essex service for up to three hours. The disruptions hit on a July afternoon of extreme temperatures, compounding the frustration for riders already paying more for less reliable service.
The July 1 increase is the third annual hike since 2024, part of an automatic escalation plan approved that year across NJ Transit’s rail, bus and light rail. It lands on an agency that has not posted a balanced operating budget in more than a decade and that just admitted to a multimillion-dollar miscalculation in its World Cup transit planning.
The fare hike took effect one day after the Legislature sent the $60.7 billion fiscal year 2027 budget to Governor Mikie Sherrill, who signed it before the constitutional deadline on June 30. The Assembly passed the spending plan 58-20 and the Senate 26-14.
World Cup Rider Estimates Fell Short
Kris Kolluri, who simultaneously serves as President and CEO of NJ Transit and Executive Director of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, told NBC New York that ridership estimates for the World Cup fell short of expectations. The agency planned for 40,000 passengers per match based on estimates from the American Dream Mall and FIFA. But actual ridership has averaged just 20,000 to 26,000. NJ Transit says it could have saved roughly $2 million per match with more accurate projections, with total potential losses estimated around $16 million.
"If the people who are our partners had told us about a 20- to 25,000 person system, I would have planned for a typical concert and not spent all this money," Kolluri said. "We are executing the plan that we collectively worked on for three years. If people decide not to follow the plan, that's not my issue."
Kolluri's reference to "partners" came as New York State slashed shuttle-bus fares from Manhattan to MetLife Stadium from $80 to $20. Governor Kathy Hochul announced the discount in May, and the buses sold out for the first five matches. The $20 fare competed with NJ Transit rail tickets, which dropped from an initial $150 announcement to $98.
Sherrill inherited the transit agreement in January and publicly pressed FIFA to cover the $48 million transit cost. FIFA responded by stating it was "not aware of any other major event previously held at NYNJ Stadium, including other major sports, global concert tours, etc., where organizers were required to pay for fan transportation."
The FY2027 state budget includes $40 million for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to cover World Cup venue costs. That venue funding flows from the same budget that leaves NJ Transit holding the $48 million transit bill.
Kolluri Heads Two Agencies With Disparate Finances
Kolluri runs both NJ Transit and the Turnpike Authority as of January, when Sherrill retained him in the first role and named him to the second. In the Turnpike Authority post he receives a $1 salary, while he keeps his $280,000 NJ Transit paycheck. The dual mandate is unusual in New Jersey transportation governance, and it is all the more striking given that Kolluri had told reporters in November 2025 that he would leave at the end of January and not seek reappointment under the incoming administration.
Kolluri has been in Trenton since 2006, when he served as New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner and briefly as acting governor while Jon Corzine and others in the line of succession were out of town. His one day tenure makes him the first Indian American to serve as Governor.
After leaving NJDOT in 2008, he led the Schools Development Authority, practiced transportation law and ran the Gateway Development Commission before Governor Phil Murphy nominated him to lead NJ Transit on December 11, 2024.
The Turnpike Authority, which Kolluri has led since January 2026, took in $1.68 billion in tolls in 2024 and carries an A1 rating from Moody's, a mark of its reliable revenue stream. In the first quarter of 2025, after New York City congestion pricing took effect, toll revenue climbed 4% from the prior year, to $391 million. The authority also carries $12 billion in bonds. Its 2025 spending plan called for $1.6 billion in capital projects.
NJ Transit, meanwhile, collected $46.7 million less in fares than projected in about the same period. It has no equivalent rating because its operating revenue is insufficient to cover costs. The agency's most recent complete fiscal year, FY2025, closed with a $121 million operating deficit. Spending ran $100.3 million higher than expected, led by labor and materials, while revenues fell $20.7 million short of projections.
FY2026 ended June 30; the agency has not yet released its year-end report. Its adopted budget projected about $3.5 billion in revenues against expenses, but it still faces a persistent operating gap of roughly $2 billion.
The agency has also failed to meet its own schedule. Cancellations on NJ Transit trains more than doubled from January through May 2026 versus the year before.
The FY2027 budget sends $1.05 billion in state operating support to NJ Transit, a $215.3 million increase that represents a 25.9% jump from the prior year. The general fund adds $282.2 million. The corporate transit fee contributes $765.6 million, but it will expire in 2028 unless renewed.
The Turnpike Authority offers a more stable source: it will send NJ Transit roughly $470 million in fiscal year 2027, up from about $455 million the year before. That payment is one of the biggest revenue streams keeping the transit agency afloat.
Transit Merger Bill Remains in Committee
Assemblyman Andrew Macurdy (D, 21st District) introduced A4146 on February 19, a bill that would fold the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, NJ Transit and the Transportation Trust Fund Authority into a single entity called the Transportation Authority of New Jersey. The Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee received the measure the same day. A separate Senate bill, S3284, introduced February 2, would create a Transportation Consolidation Task Force with a seven-member panel. Macurdy said in May that the bill would "eliminate silos" and enable "holistic transportation planning" across the state.
Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips (R, 40th District), the GOP conference leader, has called for an audit of NJ Transit and demanded repeal of the corporate transit fee, but has not publicly opposed the merger. Past toll-road merger proposals have faced South Jersey resistance over concerns about losing control of toll-road patronage jobs. Macurdy's bill excludes that authority, an agency Kolluri chaired as NJDOT Commissioner from 2006 to 2008.
NJBallot found no public records of ATU Local 819, which represents bus and rail workers, or SMART-TD, the rail union, commenting on the merger as of early July. Their position could become a factor if the bill advances.
Kolluri told an Insider NJ interviewer in early June that "it's easy to say they should subsidize" and that critics should "either put up or shut up." In April, when NJ Transit announced the initial $150 round-trip fare, he told reporters: "This isn't price gouging. We're literally trying to recoup our costs."
Two World Cup matches remain at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, Bergen County: a Round of 16 contest on July 5 and the final on July 19. The potential $16 million in losses will continue building until the tournament ends. Kolluri has pledged not to ask Trenton for more money. He has not said how he will close the gap without cutting service or raising fares again — but perhaps that isn’t his issue.
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