APTA Briefs White House World Cup Task Force

On March 13, APTA briefed the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026, a federal multi-agency body comprised of the departments of Commerce, Transportation, Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury, the FBI, the Small Business Administration, and other federal agencies focused on delivering highly successful World Cup games. The task force has been working with the 11 host cities to support the games.

Joel Young, APTA vice chair and board member of AC Transit, Oakland, CA, serves as co-chair of the APTA Mega-Events Task Force. He detailed the objectives of the task force and its work with the 26 U.S. transit agencies engaged in moving the millions expected for the games. In particular, he emphasized the need for additional federal funding to support logistics for the games and that, in addition to moving crowds to and from matches, transit agencies must also continue to provide the usual services expected by the residents of the host cities.

APTA President and CEO Paul P. Skoutelas invited task force members to attend APTA’s upcoming Legislative and Mobility conferences, where the APTA Mega-Events Task Force will be meeting, and to share with APTA the important work the federal government is undertaking to support the games.

The World Cup runs from June 11-July 19 at venues in the U.S., Canada, and Mexica. Some 104 matches will be played, of which 78 will be in the U.S., including the quarter-final, semi-final, and championship games. FIFA estimates that 3.5-4.5 million fans are expected to attend the games.

Stephanie Wiggins, CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro), also is co-chair of the APTA Mega-Events Task Force. LA Metro, in collaboration with APTA, released its Special Event Transportation – Guidance and Opportunities (SetGo) Playbook: a comprehensive resource for managing public transit service for special and ‘Mega’ events last Fall.