The long-awaited FIFA World Cup tournament is just months away, and local officials on Thursday unveiled the region’s plans for how to handle the masses of soccer fans that will visit North Texas this summer.
Monica Paul, president of the North Texas FIFA World Cup organizing committee, told reporters the region is in the spotlight for hosting nine matches in Arlington — the most of any host city — as well as the International Broadcast Center and Fan Festival in Dallas.
“Though we've already had many, many other announcements throughout this process, today's is probably one of the most important of the entire tournament,” Paul said.
Upon arriving at any one of the region’s airports, mainly Love Field and Dallas-Fort Worth International, travelers can expect a variety of ways to reach AT&T stadium for the tournament's matches. Those includes bus and rail service, rideshare and car rentals.
Regional transportation director Michael Morris laid out the transportation plan’s priorities: quality, magnitude, redundancy and resiliency of transportation service.
“A good example of this is the refurbished transport [Trinity Railway Express] cars partnering with DART and Trinity Metro, funding those improvements almost two years ago for that service to be available to our guests coming to our region,” Morris said.
TRE will have more frequent service and additional train cars during the tournament. Fans can take the train from Victory station, downtown Dallas or Fort Worth to CentrePort DFW and transfer to a bus that will take them a hub near the stadium.
Morris also touted the availability of 125 charter buses to address overcrowding on the trains. Those buses will run on reversible managed lanes along Interstate 30, taking fans from downtown Dallas to the bus hub.
“As you can imagine, our international visitors are probably more familiar with transit systems in their home countries, which is why you see the magnitude of the transit investment that we have in our particular plan,” Morris said.
Rideshare services and car rentals will also be available from airports, hotels and to a drop-off location northeast of the stadium.
Natalie Bettger, program manager for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, also told reporters that North Texas residents should plan around the match days.
“If you live in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, consider driving so the out-of-town visitors can utilize the transit system,” Bettger said. “If you work near the Arlington Entertainment District, consider working from home on match days to help reduce the traffic in the area.”
Fans who plan to use the charter buses from CentrePort DFW station must have a valid match day ticket. All visitors must also purchase a pass to use any DART, TRE or Trinity Metro service. Tickets can be purchased using the GoPass app.
“With this plan, we are confident that we will be prepared to handle the number of guests that will be using our transportation system around the World Cup,” Monica Paul said.
Pablo Arauz Peña is KERA’s growth and infrastructure reporter. Got a tip? Email Pablo at parauzpena@kera.org.
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