Michael Morris, director of transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, speaks during a public hearing regarding the FIFA World Cup on April 13 at the council’s offices in Arlington. Morris said 70,000-plus people are expected to attend the nine games at AT&T Stadium.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments provided transportation updates Monday for the FIFA World Cup, which will have its first Arlington game on June 14.
Michael Morris, director of transportation for the council, said an estimated 70,000-plus people are expected to attend the nine games held at AT&T Stadium, which will be referred to as Dallas Stadium for the event. Arlington will hold the most games of any host city.
“We anticipate a lot of people will come by car, and we anticipate a lot of people will come by transit,” Morris said.
He said the main pillars of the mobility plan are to increase the quality and magnitude of service and to build redundancy and resilience into the plan.
To address these goals, Morris said, the Trinity Railway Express passenger cars have been refurbished, two additional four-car trains will be used and lanes that change direction based on time of day or traffic demand on Interstate 30 will help reduce traffic jams.
A map displays locations related to the FIFA World Cup during a public hearing April 13 at the North Central Texas Council of Governments offices in Arlington. The first World Cup game in Arlington is on June 14.
125 charter buses will move guests from CentrePort Station to Lot H near AT&T Stadium, which serves as the main transit drop-off and pickup site. The charter buses will be used between CentrePort, Dallas and Fort Worth.
From CentrePort Station, fans will be able to take charter buses to the bus hub at East Road to Six Flags Street and Nolan Ryan Expressway, according to a North Central Texas Council of Governments press release. A FIFA match ticket is required to ride the bus.
If the Trinity Railway Express begins to reach capacity, match ticket holders will be directly transported from Victory Station in Dallas or the Fort Worth Central Station to the bus hub in Arlington through a Dynamic Charter Service.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments will also perform readiness exercises to prepare for scenarios from mechanical issues with the train system to a weather event that could trigger a safety protocol.
Additional preparations include cleaning road signs, extending mobility assistance patrols on the freeway and adding concrete barriers for pedestrian safety.
“It’s an example of using FIFA as an excuse to do the things you should be doing anyway,” Morris said.
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