Episode 4: Arlington Prepares to Keep City Moving During World Cup

As Arlington prepares to host nine matches during the FIFA World Cup 2026™, City and regional leaders are working together to ensure residents and visitors can move efficiently throughout the region.

In the latest episode of “Arlington Welcomes the World,” transportation experts outlined a comprehensive, multi-agency plan designed to manage traffic, expand transit options and maintain safety during one of the largest sporting events in the world.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Arlington is getting ready to welcome the world, and getting around the city will be a big part of that experience. I'm Jay Warren, and in this episode of Arlington Welcomes the World, we're breaking down transportation and traffic, what to expect, how to plan ahead, and how the city is working to keep Arlington moving during the FIFA World Cup 2026. And joining us now is Carla Windsor. She's a senior program manager with the North Central Texas Council of Governments who's helping lead the regional transportation planning for the FIFA World Cup. You have a big job, Carla. Fun job. Thanks for being here. We appreciate it. I know the transportation plan was recently announced. Uh talk to us a little bit about how we're going to move thousands, really tens of thousands of people through the region and through Arlington in an efficient way without disrupting everything else.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Right, right. So it's a it's a very collaborative approach. We've been planning for two years now, working with the city of Arlington, our friends at Techstot, our transit authorities, our neighboring communities, thinking of a multimodal uh approach. We are we'll have a lot of parking near the stadium. We're going to have transit options available this time around to bring people into the Arlington Entertainment District. Um we hope there's good communication. There'll be signage on our interstate systems, I-30, 360. Um we hope that people are taking advantage of different online communication tools from the city, from our friends at FIFA and other uh platforms, um, and just really being aware of those game days, match times, and maybe areas that if they can take an alternative route that's important, or um they can sort of mitigate and and know the times that are gonna be the peak periods for transportation. But honestly, you know, Arlington does this really well. They host big events all the time, and so I think this will hopefully just be seamless into everyone's normal day.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

I think you bring up an excellent point. A lot of people are worried about the entire six or seven weeks that the World Cup's gonna be going on. And in reality, you really just have to be focused on the nine game days. Uh that's the true areas where we have some issues and some road closures. So let's dig a little deeper. We do know that on game days, on match days, uh roads like the ATT Way, Cowboys Way, and parts of Nolan Ryan Expressway will be closed. Um so what do residents and drivers need to know ahead of time so they can kind of get around all of that?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Right. So if you normally work or live within the area, I would make sure that you have an alternative route. Uh save more time if needed to get where you're going for appointments or your everyday activities. Um, if you're driving into the district and you're going to be, let's say, parking for the game, we'll have very specific routes assigned on how to get to your parking. And those will be provided once you purchase parking if you do that through the FIFA package. And so you may not always want to follow your navigation system. There may be other and better ways to get around. But we are working closely with navigation systems. Um, the Waze, the Google Maps, Apple Maps, just to make sure they have the latest and greatest road closure information. And if anything changes, that can dynamically be updated on someone's phone.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Yeah. You mentioned some people will be driving in, purchasing the parking. Uh there is a lot of parking out there, but certainly not everyone will be doing that. So, how do you expect people are going to be getting back and forth from Fort Worth and Dallas into the entertainment district?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Yeah. So one of the more unique ways that we have all coordinated on is the TRE, which is the heavy commuter rail line that connects Fort Worth and Dallas. It's jointly owned by Dart and Trinity Metro. Um, folks can ride in from the Victory Station in Dallas will be the anchor station on the east, and the central station in downtown Fort Worth will be the anchor on the west. Folks can ride in on the TRE and they'll go to the Centerport Station, which is just north of Arlington, just north of the stadium in the city of Fort Worth. From there, we will have 125 charter buses, uh 50 passenger charter buses. Anyone that has a ticket to the game, those charter buses will be free to bring them down into the Arlington Entertainment District. Um, it's about a little less than a half a mile walk, about 10 minutes north of the stadium, is where they'll be uh dropped off.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

And is there a backup plan if the trains are too full?

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yes. So at those locations, if trains get full and we see big crowds, we have what's called our bus bridge. So this is a dynamic system of additional buses that will bring people from the stations directly to the Arlington Entertainment District. And it skips that step, just making sure we have enough room on the trains. And the trains hold um a thousand capacity each direction. They really hold 1,200, but we're saving a few seats for everyday commuters. Um and so we've got those additional buses that then can be supplemental at each of the locations. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Um, so when fans arrive, you mentioned that they'll be kind of dropped off in a in one location and then they'll have to walk. Talk to us a little bit about what that is gonna look like and the safety features there.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Sure. So from our bus hub, which is north of uh Nolan Ryan along Pennant, we are closing down one of the travel lanes. We're putting up concrete barricades, and they'll be wrapped with all of the FIFA signage and everything. And so pedestrians will have a full travel lane plus the adjacent sidewalk to walk from that area strictly uh direct to the stadium. We also have our rideshare lot, which is operating in the eSports stadium parking area, and we've got wide sidewalks that are connecting from that location down to the stadium. We've partnered with the city of Arlington to fund around five million dollars of additional sidewalks in the Arlington Entertainment District. And so they're making sure all the sidewalks have ADA accessibility features, that they're wide. And then Arlington Fire, EMT, and police are gonna have shade structures, cooling stations along those walks so that if anybody has any issues after the game or even before the game, there are places where someone could help assist you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

You mentioned some of the navigation apps. Uh what tools like that or are there other tools that people should be downloading and utilizing uh either whether trying to avoid the traffic or they know they're gonna be in the middle of it, what they need to do?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Um if you're gonna take transit, you definitely want to download the GoPass app. So that can be used for any of our transit uh systems here in the Metroplex, and it'll walk you through purchasing your ticket to ride the TRE, updated schedules, all that kind of information. FIFA's gonna have an app that's linked and connected to our host committee to the city of Arlington. It's kind of connecting all the different communities and the latest information people need to know on transportation. And the host committee has a great website where the latest information is being updated continuously, and so I'd also check that before you head out on your trip.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

And we always encourage people to follow the city of Arlington. Yeah, we'll be posting information regularly as well. And you can also find information, of course, on our website. Excellent. So hey Carla, thanks so much. I know you've got a lot that you've got to be doing. You could be spending your time elsewhere. We appreciate you coming in here today to talk to us about transportation.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

All right, we're excited. Yeah, okay. Thank you. Thank you.

unknown 7:11

One, two, three, four, five, six, do it.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

We said this to Carla as well. I know you're busy. Lots going on right now, so we appreciate you taking some time to talk to us today.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Definitely. Thank you guys for inviting me here.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Tell us a little bit about what the Public Works Department specifically is doing to make sure traffic keeps moving and that we reduce congestion as much as possible on game days.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

On game days, we've been working with North Central Texas Council of Governments on implementing a traffic management plan. A part of that traffic management plan is just pretty much figuring out where attendees are parking, where buses are going to be parked at, and make sure that everybody has an experience of pretty much efficient travel to and from the game. We're typically following our typical Cowboys uh game day setup, so not too many changes, something that we've been doing for years here in Arlington. We've also made an investment into a couple of projects out there as far as overhead DMS boards, renewals, actually adding a couple locations to pretty much communicate messages to people on the roadways. Along with that, we made an investment in relocating our TMC to the new uh mop building while also making an investment in renewing our signal system software.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

So I want to break some of that down for folks. And one of the I think important notes here is you've made a lot of investments. It's certainly going to help with the World Cup, but these are investments that will stay here long term, which will help our residents, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Yes, sir. So uh one of the cool things about World Cup investments that we're doing, everybody looks at them as short term. They're only here for about two months. But for us, it was an opportunity to pretty much make an investment that's gonna be last-longing for the city of Arlington. And so with our new uh signal system, it's a software that pretty much controls the signals. We're also getting more technology friendly and more implementation, things like adaptive systems, uh to be able to control traffic when no one's there overnight, and uh be able to look at our problem intersection and pretty much be able to manage that on an efficient front. Along with that, um, that's something that with that investment we're planning to do for the next 20 years, bring in that new technology, continue to grow, expand on it, and provide more technology for the city and for the residents here.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

So if we break that down, essentially, if you regularly drive Collins Street, let's say, to get to and from work, um, you're gonna find an easier commute after the World Cup's over based on the technology and the investments we've made.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Yes, sir. Um, so one of the main things that we're doing out there, uh, we've upgraded all of the intersections around the entertainment district. So they now have our what we consider 085s, which help us with preemption for emergency vehicles. So during rush hour on Collins or Cooper, if someone comes through and that emergency vehicle came through, it would typically throw our system off for about 30 minutes to maybe even two hours on extreme cases. With our new system, the signal can be pre-empted, allow the emergency vehicle to go through the intersection, and then pretty much return to its regular timing pattern. It'd make still efficient during rush hour. Uh let's pull the curtain back a little bit for folks.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Uh there's a traffic management center, um, and I know we've recently moved it, we've expanded it. Tell folks a little bit about what the traffic management center does, what it is, and how it's been improved.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Okay. Um, my traffic management center uh typically is staffed every day from 8 to 5, Monday through Friday. But it usually smalls, uh a little smaller, so typically assists our three people in there that work there daily. But now we have about 10 seats in there along with the conference room. So we can invite outside agencies to come in, watch the traffic during games. But what that does for us on a daily uh occurrence outside of our operation outside of World Cup is allow us more space, more technology, bringing in updated uh screens technology in our traffic management center to provide better services. And so now we'll be able to see more intersections based on our upgrades with the screens that we're doing, the um the advancement, the increase in size of them, and also the technology. And so now we're able to see a little bit more, we're able to be a little bit more uh, I would say proactive than reactive. And so we're able to see more things going around Arnton than waiting for people to call or complain about what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Yeah. You mentioned a little bit in in terms of people being able to sit in there that are regional partners. Talk to us a little bit more about what regional partners you're engaging with and how that's gonna help during the game days.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

We've been engaging with the DOT through North Central Texas Council governments. Of course, uh COG has been involved. We're talking with Textile, we're talking with the regional partners as far as TRE and Dart uh to be able to look at the buses coming into Arlington on game day events. Uh and so we've been working with APD, um our ELC with the Irish, and so pretty much are just partners in general across the city, across the region, as you mentioned. Uh we've been able to get them in and let them know that now they have a place to sit rather than come stand like they would in our old TMC.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

All right, let's wrap it up with this. If you're an Arlington resident and you don't want to be in the middle of all the mess on game days, um, what's your biggest piece of advice?

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Uh I would say learn when the game days are, at what time the games are happening, and also our alternate route to get to and from where you're trying to go.

unknown 12:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Very good. All right. Well, Chris, we certainly do appreciate you and the entire team. There's a lot of people behind the scenes working on this to make sure that we're going to have very smooth traffic days, uh, both for residents and visitors. And we appreciate you all.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Yes, sir. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

And for the latest updates on World Cup preparations, events, and what to expect in our community, visit Arlington TX.govslash World Cup.