A TTC streetcar heading west on Queen St. East, makes the turn onto King St. East near River St. on July 6, 2023.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Toronto is beefing up public transit services in preparation for up to 500,000 fans visiting over the next two weeks to see Taylor Swift perform six Eras Tour shows.
Dozens of extra trains, subways, streetcars and buses are being added to regular service for each concert night, according to the Toronto Transit Commission and Metrolinx, which operates the regional GO Transit train and bus network. Hundreds of transit workers, police and volunteers are also being deployed to help with crowd control.
“I want you to know that we are ‘ready for it’,” said Joanna Beaven-Desjardins, executive director of Toronto Emergency Management, at a recent technical briefing, making air quotes for the last three words in reference to well-known Swift lyrics.
“We will be activating our emergency operations centre on all of the concert dates,” she said. “We are ready, we are agile and we are prepared to pivot as needed.”
Roughly 60,000 ticket holders will be making their way to the Rogers Centre for each show from Nov. 14-23, with thousands more expected to participate in pre-show activities at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre called Taylgate ’24, according to TTC estimates. Overlapping events at Scotiabank Arena are expected to add as many as 20,000 people to that section of the downtown core on each night of the tour, the TTC said.
An average of 91,601 riders per day accessed the TTC subway system through Union Station in 2022. Barbara Gray, general manager of transportation services at the City of Toronto, said at the technical briefing that the station will have “robust crowd management plans in place.”
She added: “Extra staff are also being added to the city’s traffic operations centre to monitor traffic conditions, quickly spot any bottlenecks and make real-time adjustments as needed to keep traffic moving outside of the perimeter.”
The city has learned from traffic issues that arose when Beyoncé brought part of her Renaissance Tour to the city last year, Ms. Gray said.
Despite all those efforts, many regular downtown commuters plan to avoid the area on concert days.
“I typically go in on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but this week I’ll go in on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,” said Thomas Gallezot, a provincial public servant who commutes by GO Transit to Toronto from Guelph.
“Though I am happy for those attending the concerts and see lots of benefits for the city that we’ll have so many young people having a great time here this month.”
Roula Meditskos, who commutes to the downtown offices of KPMG from Oakville, will also be adjusting her hybrid work schedule to avoid coming in on concert days.
“If I can stay away from the downtown core, I will,” she said. “Though I can’t avoid going downtown at all costs. I’ll have to go in for in-person events like an insurance conference we are holding on the 19th, but I’ll just have to plan ahead and expect to spend extra time.”
The experiences from other cities that have hosted the Eras Tour already suggest Toronto is about to face a massive surge in public transit use.
When Ms. Swift played Atlanta last year, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority moved 140,000 riders from the four stations around the Mercedes-Benz Stadium over three nights. That is more than triple the number of riders the system moves on a typical weekend, MARTA said.
The Chicago Transit Authority said the Eras Tour shows in that city generated more than 43,000 additional bus and rail rides, leading to the CTA’s highest weekly ridership in three years.
“We have been speaking to other transit agencies to learn from their experiences, and we are ready to make all the concert goers’ experiences as smooth as possible,” TTC chief executive officer Greg Percy said in a statement.
“Our experience with playoff sports, New Year’s Eve, and other large-scale events gives me confidence that we are ready for the Eras Tour shows.”