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Philadelphia is Doing World Cup Mass Transit the Right Way
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PHILADELPHIA (April 20, 2026)—Airbnb has joined forces with Philadelphia Soccer 2026, the 501c3 non-profit that serves as the Local Host Committee charged with planning and executing FIFA World Cup™ in partnership with the City of Philadelphia, to provide complimentary rides home on SEPTA’s (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) B (Broad Street Line) after all six FIFA World Cup™ matches in Philadelphia. The free-ride-home program is designed to expand access to safe, reliable transportation and help ensure all fans can fully participate in the FIFA World Cup experience.
As an Official FIFA World Cup 2026™ Tournament Supporter, Airbnb will sponsor B (Broad Street Line) service for fans after all matches at Philadelphia Stadium.
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SEPTA will operate regularly scheduled service along with Sports Express trains every 10 minutes or less. Complimentary rides home from NRG Station for FIFA World Cup 2026™ matches will begin at halftime and continue for two (2) hours following the end of the match. Regular fares will apply for all travel to the matches.
Regular fares will apply for all travel to the matches, which is $2.90 to get down to the sports complex. Then it’s free to come home.
Great job by the Philly 2026 committee and Airbnb, especially when you think about the absolute nonsense going on with transit to Metlife and Gillette up in North Jersey and Foxboro. NJ Transit has had to raise prices to a ridiculous level to cover costs, explained in this AP writeup from late last week:
Fans trying to get to MetLife Stadium from New York City can expect to shell out $150 for a round-trip train fare for each match, transportation officials confirmed Friday.
That’s nearly 12 times the regular $12.90 fare for the roughly 15-minute, 9-mile ride from Manhattan’s Penn Station to the stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
New Jersey has been butting heads with FIFA over who is supposed to pay for transit increases. Parking has been mostly eliminated at MetLife, requiring a larger volume of fans who need mass transit, and still-relatively-new governor Mikie Sherrill wrote on Friday that her administration inherited an agreement that she’s not on board with:
Boston is having some issues, too, since Gillette is out in the middle of nowhere, so a roundtrip ticket to get there from the city is going to cost $80. That’s four times the normal amount for the service, which is 20 bucks. There’s a $95 bus option as well. Not New York prices, but still rough no matter which way you look at it.
Bottom line, Philly organizers managed this well. We’re not gonna have to pay $80 or $150, or even $5.80 for a roundtrip on the Broad Street Line. Just $2.90 for a one-way trip, with a sponsor handling the return.
It’s a good start when you consider that this a prime opportunity for SEPTA to generate some positivity on an international stage. We’re gonna have visitors in town from all over the world, and they’re likely staying in the city and taking the BSL to the games. All it takes is one dude from Sky Sports to go on television in England and say “My experience on Septa was great, while my experience in New York was terrible.” Then we take that publicity to the Republicans in Pennsyltucky and demand proper funding for mass transit in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
(There’s nothing official yet from the committee in terms of the tailgating scene, or what the parking lots right outside of the Linc are going to look like, but presumably tailgating won’t be as robust as it normally is for an Eagles game, so it feels like we’ll probably have a larger volume of mass transit users for a couple of different reasons.)
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com