The Taylor Swift Transit Effect: VTA adds more service for ‘Eras Tour’ as other cities see public transit boom

Taylor Swift is leaving an impact on not just the music industry, but public transit, as well.

As Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” moves across the country, the pop singer is leaving her mark not only on the music industry but on public transit, too  — with concertgoers dressed in sparkles, tassels and cowboy hats packing into trains and buses to get to the record-breaking shows.

The phenomenon — dubbed the “Taylor Swift transit effect” by some transportation experts — is expected to arrive in the Bay Area when Swift comes to Santa Clara for her two-night engagement at Levi’s Stadium this week.

While Santa Clara Valley Transportation officials don’t have an estimate of how many riders the concert could bring in on July 28 and 29, spokesperson Stacey Hendler Ross said other transit agencies have experienced up to triple the ridership for Swift’s concerts compared to other large-scale events. VTA’s light rail, which runs right past the stadium, typically transports about 8,000 passengers both to and from football games, Hendler Ross said.

Tim Menard, CEO of Bay Area-based traffic technology solutions company LYT, saw Swift’s impact on transit firsthand last month when he visited Chicago while the Eras Tour was in the Windy City. He said traffic throughout the city was jammed and many fans were hopping on transit instead to get to Soldier Field.

While transit agencies across the country have struggled to return to pre-pandemic ridership numbers, Menard said that Swift forced them to return to a “high mode of operation” in order to handle the huge influx of people taking transit to her concerts.

“No matter where you look, everywhere Taylor has gone to, it’s been the same outcome — everybody is jumping on transit to get to and from her concerts because it’s ultimately the best way to go,” he said. “It’s been phenomenal.”

For the week of June 4-10, the Chicago Transit Authority credited the pop phenom with helping them reach 5.63 million rides — the highest number since the start of the pandemic. They estimated the three-night concert produced more than 43,000 additional bus and rail rides.

In Minneapolis, Metro Transit provided nearly 356,000 rides between Friday, June 23, and Sunday, June 25, with people traveling to both the “Eras Tour” and the Twin Cities Pride Festival. Light rail ridership was nearly double on Friday and Saturday, and the city extended its hours of service due to demand.

In preparation for Swift’s long-awaited return to the Bay Area — she last performed here in 2018, when she brought her “Reputation Stadium Tour” to Santa Clara — VTA said it will provide 30% more capacity for the two concert nights than they do for other events at Levi’s Stadium. For a 49ers game, Hendler Ross said they typically provide about 60 train cars, with each car holding about 150 people, running to and from the stadium starting a few hours before the game.

For the “Eras Tour,” VTA will provide up to 85 train cars starting around 4:30 p.m. They expect the largest crowds will come from people transferring from BART in Milpitas and Caltrain in Mountain View.

Hendler Ross said they also have a “few fun surprises” for those heading to the concert.

BART also will run extra trains on both concert days and have extra security and staff at stations to help people get around.

Campbell City Councilmember and VTA Board Member Sergio Lopez is one of the many Swifties attending the concert who have already made plans to take the light rail. The transit advocate hopes that concertgoers will realize how convenient it is to take public transportation and start taking it more in their day-to-day lives.

Especially for the younger generation of Swifties, he said making the decision to take transit is “the ability to be mindful of your environmental impact.”

Besides, the ride is expected to be a good time.

“I think if anyone is on the fence about whether to take public transit, I’d really encourage you because that light rail, I promise you, to and from there is going to be a Taylor Swift party bus, an extension of the concert experience,” said Lopez. “It’s going to be full of fans and a supportive, welcoming, inclusive environment.”

As Lopez gears up for the concert — the self-proclaimed “pop girlie” has his “1989”-era outfit all ready — he hopes one of Swift’s two surprise songs will be “New Romantics.”

But while Swift says in the opening verse that “we wait for trains that just aren’t coming,” VTA’s trains are all set to deliver thousands of fans to the shows.