Taylor Swift fans contemplating traveling with NJ Transit to her three concerts this weekend at MetLife Stadium should perhaps consider the agency’s mixed track record of driving large numbers of fans to and from mega-events to move in the meadowlands.
While NJ Transit has hosted several recent shows and sporting events where the agency’s trains and buses have successfully transported fans, many still remember the long delays and chaos that followed disruptions to other NJ Transit events.
Super Bowl XLVIII and Wrestlemania 35 were two notorious events that resulted in waits that thousands of frustrated fans estimated in hours. NJ Transit’s appearance for K-pop superstars BTS’ May 2019 concerts was the agency’s triumph as the predicted two-hour wait to board a train did not materialize and the transit functioned as planned.
The alternative is to get stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic to and from the concerts and waste time exiting parking lots.
NJ Transit officials said the agencies’ overall track record of providing services for hundreds of special events since the Meadowlands station opened in 2009 should be considered, and that the agency has planned how Swifties will be transported this weekend.
Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014 was dubbed the “Superbowl for public transit” by organizers, and representatives from NJ Transit said they were “ready for the masses” and vowed to deliver a world-class experience. The massive punch the Seattle Seahawks delivered to the Denver Broncos got fans on the train early.
Photos surfaced in national media of thousands of fans crowding around the three-track MetLife stadium station. NJ Transit commissioned a 148-page report examining the Super Bowl issues prepared by the law firm of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney and Carpenter and submitted in August 2014.
It concluded that NJ Transit “took a little longer…due to some glitches, but NJ Transit still safely handled all 33,000+ passengers in three and a half hours after the game.”
“NJ Transit has successfully and seamlessly provided rail service to MetLife Stadium for hundreds of major events since the station opened in 2009,” said Jim Smith, a spokesman for the agency. “Similar to cars exiting the stadium car park, the closer you are to the front of the queue after an event, the shorter the wait for a train to Secaucus for connections.”
The report criticized the provision of 300 replacement buses. Fearing renewed overcrowding and pre-game congestion at the Secaucus Junction station, where fans transfer to stadium trains, then-Transport Commissioner James Simpson and NJ Transit chief executive James Weinstein disagreed over how the 300 buses would be used should.
Simpson wanted the buses to expand rail service from the stadium, Weinstein wanted the buses to be moved to Secaucus to reduce crowds there. Simpson delayed the decision and the buses continued to Secaucus until Gov. Chris Christie’s chief adviser urged that 100 buses be sent back to MetLife Stadium, the report said.
Buses are part of the stadium’s contingency transportation plan for the Taylor Swift concerts, but are not intended to replace rail travel, Smith said. Trains can carry more people.
Fans who took the train from MetLife Stadium after Wrestlemania 35 in April 2019 faced similar issues, including long waits and queues, compounded by rain after the event ended.
NJ Transit blamed WrestleMania’s 12:30 end time, which was allegedly two hours later than the scheduled 10:30 pm end time. Because of federal regulations governing how long train crews work between rest periods, the agency has not been able to have train workers work overtime to man additional trains, officials said.
WWE officials responded by saying that Mega Events don’t run on a schedule, like a train. NJ Transit’s pre-event plan called for the deployment of six trainsets after the event until about 1 a.m. based on WWE’s original event schedule, agency officials said. By the end of the evening, NJ Transit had moved more than 12,000 customers out of MetLife Stadium. The double-track railway line can transport a maximum of 13,000 people per hour.
Based on NJ Transit’s fine performance following Korean superstars BTS’ MetLife concerts in May 2019, Taylor Swift fans might not have to wait ages for a post-concert train.
While MetLife warned BTS fans about a two-hour wait, it didn’t come to that. This time, replacement buses operated on a load-and-go basis, and trains departed from MetLife every 10 minutes. The concert promoters also ended the show on time to avoid the train crew issue seen at Wrestlemania.
Field reports after the first BTS show said that despite thousands of people moving, the train service was running as smoothly as possible.
Another change is that NJ Transit now has a full roster of train drivers for train operations, which was not the case in 2019.
NJ Transit plans to operate a full rail schedule to minimize wait times and maximize capacity for the Taylor Swift concerts, Smith said. Unlike the BTS show, MetLife officials didn’t discourage Swifties from taking the train, and linked from the stadium’s Swiftie Central webpage to the NJ Transits concert service webpage.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe to NJ.com today.
Larry Higgs can be reached at [email protected].