You would think NJ Transit would learn their lesson after that nightmarish mob scene which ensued after a U2 concert at the Meadowlands almost exactly one year ago. Could it be they just don't care that thousands of people have to grind together like livestock being herded toward the train platform, where there are too few trains to accommodate the crowd? Judging by the hellish accounts from commuters trying to get to and away from last night's Jets game, they just can't handle it.
New Jersey Transit blames the overcrowding on the weather, and admits they struggled to accommodate 12,200 passengers, almost twice what it expected. "That is a record for us at a football game," New Jersey Transit spokeswoman Penny Bassett-Hackett tells Bloomberg News. "The storm that came through the area caused some delays." According to Bloomberg, getting there from Secaucus was half the fun: "Fans in Jets jerseys drinking beer stood four or five deep at the platform waiting. It got even more crowded, and trains would come and go without picking up everyone waiting. 'I have been standing here for 20 minutes,' Joseph Villorno, 50, of Manhattan said. 'I literally could not get on that last train.' "
And getting back after the game was just as bad, if not worse, as thousands of fans bottlnecked trying to get to the platform to take the trains back to Secaucus. At least commuter Mike Lawson Word saw his wish come true to make up for the ordeal; before the game he wrote on Twitter, "Words cannot describe my frustration with the NJ Transit right now. So heated!!! Jets better lose."
