I rode the ‘Swiftie Express’ to see Taylor Swift in Santa Clara
Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor train to the Levi's Stadium (aka the “Swiftie Express” Swift’s two-night Bay Area stay) was direct, cheap and hassle-free. Caltrain/Getty/Illustration by SFGATE
Santa Clara’s mayor explicitly warned fans attending Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour at Levi’s Stadium not to drive to the shows on July 28 and 29. (This would be Santa Clara’s real mayor, Lisa Gillmor, not Swift herself, the city’s honorary mayor.)
As one of the 70,000 people trying to get to the biggest concert of the millennium myself, I had been anxiously looking for alternatives to get to the show before Gillmor’s warning. But I needn’t have worried.
Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor train to the stadium (aka the “Swiftie Express” for Swift’s two-night Bay Area stay) was so direct, cheap and hassle-free that I don’t understand why more people haven’t been talking about it. I will be taking advantage of it again this fall when football season starts, since it’s also a foolproof solution to San Francisco 49ers gameday traffic.
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The train ride started in Auburn and went through Sacramento, Davis and the East Bay before arriving right outside the stadium.
Train tickets for the return trip from the concert had already sold out before the weekend started, a testament to Swift’s popularity. I planned my ride home with my girlfriend and her sister, who drove in from San Francisco.
A woman working concessions told me that the trains don’t usually sell out, even for some 49ers games. Although she assured me that, despite their smaller numbers, the Niners Faithful still buy way more booze than the Swifites.
Sold out or not, when I caught the train at the Oakland Coliseum, there were still plenty of seats. And my ticket was just $15, a fraction of what a stadium parking pass or Uber to Santa Clara would have run me.
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According to a woman who spoke with KCRA, tickets from Sacramento to Santa Clara cost $22, a nod to Swift’s triple-platinum single.
Drinks were also shockingly cheap. A 12-ounce beer was $6 onboard, roughly a third of what it costs inside the stadium. The train also had pizza, hot dogs and chips for riders to carbo load on ahead of the three-and-a-half-hour show.
Considering they were en route to the most-anticipated concert in recent history, the train’s crowd was fairly tame. Nearly everyone on board seemed to be headed to the Eras Tour (most of them in costume). As we passed through Fremont and Hayward, fans discussed which surprise songs they wanted to hear, swapped Taylor Swift friendship bracelets and listened to Eras Tour playlists in preparation.
Many appeared to be making it a family trip. I overheard one man in a “Swiftie Dad” t-shirt gently chastise his daughter for the amount of train selfies she was taking.
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It took exactly one hour to get from Oakland to Santa Clara. Much preferable to the two hours it took me to drive home — which included one hour just getting out of the parking lot.
“Ladies and gentlemen, here we are, Swiftieville!” said the conductor as we pulled in, to the sound of polite cheers. After spending weeks worrying about how to get to the show, I felt stunned at how easy my commute ended up being.
Capitol Corridor will offer special service to and from Levi’s Stadium for Beyonce (Aug. 30) and Ed Sheeran (Sep. 16) concerts; it also has adjusted service for every 49ers home game this season.
Source: SFGATE
