Photo: PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP / Getty Images
The power of music concerts, festivals and soccer games have been a powerful lifeline to LA’s Metro system, as it has been bringing in tons of foot traffic to the transit ridership system in the thousands due to the many events such as Taylor Swift ’s Eras Tour and Hard Summer music festival.
Considering how the movement of stay-at-home employees and high office vacancy rates in the workforce locations are the result of more [Angelenos] working from home and [causing most people not riding the trains or buses as often as they once did on workdays before the pandemic took over.
Well, with the help of Taylor Swift and her various shows in Los Angeles, a whopping six to be exact. LA Metro reported that just in those six days, they seen a 25 % jump, ranking up 150,000 boardings over same day averages last month!
Metro’s special bus shuttles to SoFi from two different rail line stations added 30,000 more, bringing the total increase in rail and bus boardings to 180,000 during the concert series.
Last week, brought more music lovers to the surrounding Los Angeles area as the HARD Summer music festival took place for the first time at three LA popular hotspots.
The event spread between the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, BMO Stadium and Exposition Park as different music stages were placed throughout the event.
According to Metro, a whopping 50% ridership over regular weekend boarding took place. It linked more than 20,000 riders.
“We are thrilled ‘Swifties’ and HARD Summer festival-goers chose to take Metro to fuel their passion for music,” said Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins in a prepared statement. “Introducing young people to the benefits of using public transit is a priority for Metro.”
The two concert events have placed LA Metro’s average weekend ridership at 91% of pre-pandemic levels.
Apparently, whenever there's an event going down in the L.A. area, expect for Metro to expand their operation times to accommodate riders.
This comes in hand, as the city is preparing for the biggest sporting event the city of LA has seen!
“At Metro we are gearing up for the Olympics and Paralympic Games” in 2028, said Tracy Smith, Metro spokesperson.
“Providing services for these events is a great trial run.”