The World Cup is the biggest sporting event to come to the Puget Sound. We’re expecting approximately 700,000 people to visit the region for six matches at Seattle Stadium (Lumen Field).
Sound Transit is ready – our staff are well-prepared, and we’re sharing yet another update we’ve made to ensure our passengers have safe and efficient transit experiences.
If you’ve been out on our system, you may have encountered a helpful person, in a teal blue vest, either on our platform or at a community event. These people are known as staff ambassadors, and their sole focus is to be of assistance.
Our staff ambassadors guide passengers to shuttle buses during service disruptions, hand out commemorative ORCA cards at openings, and/or can also answer fare payment questions, direct people to transit connections, and highlight what’s new at Sound Transit.
Who are staff ambassadors?
Now, what you may not know is that these people are Sound Transit staff – meaning the transit agency’s engineers, financial analysts, this blog posts’ writer, etc. And for World Cup we’re increasing our presence.
What does this look like during the tournament’s six games?
On matchdays, a teal blue, pink trim vest-wearing Sound Transit employee will direct you to the preferred station for your trip’s origin to help you beat the crowds and get home faster. Also, they will direct bicyclists to bike lockers and valets. This effort is to ensure space on trains for all passengers.
They will escalate safety concerns to security and share transit payment information. Please note: they are not replacing Fare Ambassadors, the yellow-hat-adorned staff who check and help with fare payment.
Most importantly, staff ambassadors will help manage the expected crowds. When you have a full stadium leaving after a match, going to the three nearby light rail stations, you need a lot of people to handle this. Along with security, the Field Activity Specialist Team (FAST), and Fare Ambassadors, staff ambassadors will work to get passengers onto trains efficiently.
For stations serving both the 1 Line and 2 Line, we expect trains to arrive every four minutes. In turn, we foresee the stations becoming crowded. Because we want to prevent overcrowding, this situation will cause our staff to stop people from entering the station platforms. They will also direct passengers exiting trains to the best exit points, so everyone can get to their destination.
Staff ambassadors will guide your way
This summer of soccer will test our transit system. Behind every arriving train and every managed crowd is a team committed to helping riders move through Seattle. Whether you are a daily rider or a first-time visitor, our staff ambassadors will guide you through the busiest days our system has seen, and help make the experience worthy of a world stage.