{"id":407814,"date":"2026-07-22T11:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/407814\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T11:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:18:12","slug":"vtas-record-breaking-world-cup-ridership-nets-just-around-1-per-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/407814\/","title":{"rendered":"VTA\u2019s Record-Breaking World Cup Ridership Nets Just Around $1 Per Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

VTA has long relied on sales taxes, not fares, to fund its operations. San Jos\u00e9\u2019s Mayor says this should be a wake-up call for the agency to generate more money from fares. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

U.S. national men\u2019s team soccer fans walk toward the San Francisco Bay Area stadium for the FIFA World Cup game between the USA and Bosnia and Herzegovina in Santa Clara, California, on July 1, 2026.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Despite record-breaking ridership shuttling passengers to recent World Cup<\/a> matches, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) netted only about $1 per passenger, according to new data shared by the agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials announced last week that VTA transported nearly 230,000 passengers to and from Levi\u2019s Stadium over the six matches that took place between mid-June and July 1, setting an all-time special event ridership record. But the estimated fare revenue was just over $238,000.<\/p>\n

If all the fans taking those 230,000 trips paid a $2.50 single adult fare each time, VTA would have made an additional $336,000 \u2014 though that amount could have been diminished by senior and youth rider discounts, as well as free transfers, event promotions and other discounts.<\/p>\n

San Jos\u00e9 Mayor Matt Mahan told KQED on Tuesday that \u201cthe agency needs to do better\u201d in farebox recovery and fare enforcement.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mayor Matt Mahan gives his opening speech at the World Cup flag-raising ceremony at San Jos\u00e9 City Hall in San Jos\u00e9 on May 12, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aI think this should be a wake-up call,\u201d said Mahan, who has long been critical of VTA\u2019s reliance on sales taxes, and not fares, to fund operations. \u201c\u200aThe actual fare enforcement and the level of revenue collection could have and should have been better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revenue figures, requested by KQED, come as voters in Santa Clara County and four other counties in the Bay Area will be asked to approve an additional sales tax<\/a> this November, in order to fund operations at VTA and other major Bay Area transit agencies, as the agencies struggle to overcome pandemic-related drops in revenue and ridership.\u00a0<\/p>\n

VTA is facing a nearly $900,000 budget deficit for the current fiscal year, which is projected to increase to $15 million by fiscal year 2027, and continue to worsen in the following years.<\/p>\n

\"\"A bus drives by FIFA World Cup signage on June 12, 2026, in San Jos\u00e9. <\/p>\n

VTA is a proof-of-payment system, which relies on riders to pay when they board, and on random checks by fare inspectors to enforce fare policy. Mahan said BART\u2019s model isn\u2019t necessarily replicable for the VTA\u2019s light rail and buses, but the agency could improve fare collection by making paying for transit quicker, more intuitive and reliable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aI strongly push back on the logic that because we have public revenues, we shouldn\u2019t take farebox recovery and revenue generation seriously,\u201d Mahan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added he thought it was also important to keep fares at a \u201creasonable level,\u201d in order to keep them less expensive than the cost of owning a car in Santa Clara County.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"U.S. national men\u2019s team soccer fans walk toward the San Francisco Bay Area stadium for the FIFA World Cup game between the USA and Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara, California, on July 1, 2026.<\/p>\n

Hendler Ross said VTA currently employs just six fare inspectors and has had a shortage of fare inspectors for \u201ca long time.\u201d She said the agency is currently training 10 transit security officers, whose responsibilities include checking fares, and plans to hire an additional nine to 10 officers sometime later this fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposed transit tax heading to the November ballot would help VTA offer better, more frequent service, she said, adding it would also help the \u201cgreater good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIf I never drive on Highway 280, I\u2019m still paying taxes that keep that road working,\u201d she said. \u201c\u200aYou never know when someone\u2019s gonna need to hop on public transit. So we\u2019re talking about supporting the greater good, and that\u2019s what this country has always been built on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VTA has long relied on sales taxes, not fares, to fund its operations. San Jos\u00e9\u2019s Mayor says this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-407814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}