Gridlock slams NYC as World Cup travelers rocked by chaotic transit planning

The beautiful game made an absolute mess of the Big Apple Saturday, as mass gridlock shuttered Midtown streets and left traffic snarled to make it easier for fans to get to MetLife Stadium for the region’s first World Cup match.Travelers were especially impacted around Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, where streets were closed to speed up shuttle buses for fans heading across the Hudson River to North Jersey to watch Brazil play Morocco.

About 1.2 million soccer fans were expected to hit the hosting NYC area for the world’s biggest sporting event.“It is chaotic,” said soccer fan Tim Bouman, who was wearing a Brazil shirt and visiting from the Netherlands.“I just got my [World Cup] tickets online yesterday, and I’m just asking the cop, like, right now, where we need to go? One cop told us to go this way, and the other one told us to go the other way, and now we need to walk around again.”Bouman said he believes NYC is more focused on the New York Knicks and their quest for an NBA title than on dealing with the World Cup.“I think if the [World Cup] was in Europe, it would have been, like, way more organized, for sure,” he said.NY Transit trains at Penn Station were strictly reserved for World Cup ticketholders for much of Saturday, leaving everyone else seeking to use the service scrambling to find Uber, buses and other alternate means of transportation.“It’s a little bit annoying right now because I can’t get my home train, … so now I have to make alternate plans on how to get home,” said Jennifer Charles of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, who was stranded for hours at Penn Station after traveling to the Big Apple to pick up her daughter.Authorities — including NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani — should have done a much better job alerting the public of the anticipated commuter apocalypse, said Charles, 40.“I just feel that the people in power should be better organized … telling people the trains aren’t running, because now how am I suppo...