The Swifties Are Going to Save Public Transit

Photo: Seth Herald (Getty Images)

Taylor Swift has been on her Eras tour for two months now, and each stop has brought with it something interesting: A surge in public transit usage. Swifties are foregoing Ubers, Lyfts, and parachutes, and are instead taking trains and busses to her shows—and doing so in droves.

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Sure, this has its downsides. Having your train swarmed by approximately one million teenagers in Taylor Swift cosplay is an annoying interruption on your commute home. But it also means that Swift’s target demographic — youths — is bullish on public transit.

Governing looked into just how bullish they are, and the answer is very. MARTA, the Atlanta transit authority featured in the above TikTok, tripled its passenger load in the stations closest to Swift’s show in a single weekend. Houston, her previous tour date, also saw a major increase in transit riders.

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Boston may have the biggest claim to Swiftie transit fame, however. The city managed to run entirely out of train tickets before expanding services specifically for Swift’s show. As a New Yorker, the idea of “running out” of train tickets rather than just packing more people into an overheated subway car seems entirely foreign, but Boston does things differently.

More support for public transit it, always, a good thing. It brings more fares, more funding, and more proof that these services are a necessary part of running a city in the 21st century. The Swifties, the kids, know this well — trains and busses are the best way to get around.