Thousands of Taylor Swift fans made their way to the first of six concerts at SoFi Stadium on Thursday, while managing to “shake it off” when facing snarled traffic on the 405, 110 and 105 freeways, long waits for a damaged rail line and increased police presence, after a killing occurred on a nearby train line the night before.
While some Swifties rode the LA Metro trains that had capacity increased by 33% for the concert and early merchandising blitz, many drove or took Uber and Lyft. A flood of calls into the Metro information line crashed it for two hours, said Tracy Smith, Metro spokesperson and many were asking for directions at the information booth at Union Station.
Those taking the A Line waited at least 20 minutes for a train, due to damaged overhead electrical lines in east Pasadena. Both the LAPD and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department placed extra patrols on trains after a man was killed Wednesday night on the to the K (Crenshaw) Line, one station away from the Hawthorne/Lennox Station that ran one of two shuttle buses that dropped off fans at the stadium.
Metro rail lines A, B, D, E, C and K will operate late, until 2 a.m. to accommodate Swifties after the concerts, which run Aug. 3, 4, 5 and 7, 8, 9. Since no train actually stops at SoFi, two free shuttles took passengers directly to the concert venue from a train station. One ran from the K (Crenshaw) Line’s Downtown Inglewood Station. The other ran from the C Line’s Hawthorne/Lennox Station. The shuttles will run 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. before each show, and for 90 minutes after the concerts.
But the two shuttles were not full Thursday and the line to get on board the K Line at the Downtown Inglewood Station was nearly empty around 5 p.m., as extra accommodations went unneeded.
Rows of security tape forming snaking lines before the shuttles became merely decorative as buses came and went with space inside to spare. A pop-up stand at one station selling TAP cards — in anticipation…
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