The Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) celebrated record ridership at the Super Bowl. From a VTA release:
VTA carried more than 30,000 riders to and from Levi’s Stadium for the big game — about 5,000 more than service planners anticipated and far surpassing previous ridership records set during the 2023 Taylor Swift concerts.
Approximately 40 percent of passengers transferred from Caltrain to VTA at the Mountain View Transit Center, while about 60 percent traveled from Downtown San José or transferred from BART to VTA light rail at the Milpitas Transit Center.
And:
Post game, the agency cleared more than 13,000 departing passengers from light rail platforms in under 90 minutes.
Congratulations VTA for managing to do this, and how about aiming even higher?
30,000 is a lot of people, but 70,823 attended the event. My advice is to fix a few issues and then celebrate even bigger record crowds—especially with six matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup coming up in June and July.
According to the San Francisco Giants, "Nearly 50 percent of fans reach Oracle Park by bus, train, ferry, bike, scooter or foot." Levi's Stadium doesn't have the same level of transit assets, but those assets also weren't used to maximum efficiency. Oracle Park and other transit-oriented stadiums around the world can show VTA and its companion transit agencies how to achieve more.
Here, in my not-particularly-humble opinion, are areas for improvement:
Also from VTA: "Following the game, VTA implemented a modified post-event service plan using two stations—Lick Mill and Great America—instead of the typical single-station configuration." That was a nice way of saying they didn't have through service past the stadium, as seen in the map above.
This made no sense. And if the answer is they did this for security, the answer still has to be "no." In a past job, I worked with the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies. On occasion, they asked for a couple of things that might have added marginal security but weren't always reasonable. If you just say "no, we can't do that," they generally shrug and change their planning a bit. VTA and Santa Clara should have just told law enforcement (or whoever was behind that decision) that splitting the line is not an option.
Reinstate Bike Valet:
There's actually some decent bike infrastructure around Levi's Stadium, including the San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail. Under normal circumstances, people are encouraged to bike to 49ers games. But for the Super Bowl, the trails were closed off and the usual bike valet stations, run by volunteers at the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, were barred. That's unacceptable. "We are hoping to provide bike valet at the World Cup games this summer," Deanna Chevas of the SVBC told Streetsblog.
Santa Clara leaders need to make sure this happens. Close the streets to drivers if FIFA or Levi's Stadium refuses.
And to point out the screamingly obvious, don't lock people's bikes up!
On the Friday before the Super Bowl, Caltrain told BikeLink to shut off its lockers at Mountain View. Those are important for people who want to bike to VTA and Caltrain. A handful of commuters actually came home to find their bikes stuck inside. This falls under my previous Secret Service example: you tell law enforcement "no." Offer to have a BikeLink employee there so they can search the lockers if they're worried about bombs. Either way, this was a decision I hope won't be repeated. But if the TSA or another security agency insists, then close the whole parking lot to drivers and at least be consistent.
And lastly, if you're going to have a special train ticket, why not run a special train?
During the Super Bowl, VTA officials boasted about their $27.50 round trip special fare from San Francisco. Except that's more than the usual fare on Caltrain and VTA, for the same service.
This would take some planning, but why not do something actually special, say something akin to Caltrain's Holiday train and offer a reservation-only one-seat ride from downtown San Francisco to Santa Clara, California Great America station (the Amtrak and ACE station next to the stadium)? It would require a reversing move at Santa Clara, California Transit Center, but the tracks and switches are all there to do it. And considering the circuitous route and slow speed of VTA's Orange Line between Mountain View (where one transfers from Caltrain to VTA) and Levi's Stadium, it would probably be faster. It's certainly a less-stressful ride to have one seat between San Francisco King Street Station and the stadium (one can only hope in the future they can add a wye so trains from San Francisco don't even have to reverse, but that's a major investment).
Yes, there's the small problem that there's no electrification between Great American and the California Transit Center, but grab one of the diesel trains on the San Jose-Gilroy run that sits idle except for a few rush hour runs. In the future maybe they can use the battery-powered trains that are supposed to come online in 2028. Or borrow a train from Amtrak? Or—gasp—extend the electrification four miles and have it double as a pilot experiment in running wire over the Capitol Corridor line. I could list other obvious ways to work this out. Put some drink carts on the train or add a bar car and some party decals and charge whatever people are willing to pay for a one-seat ride from San Francisco. Stop in Millbrae too to connect with BART and SFO. You could even cut a deal with United Airlines for joint ticketing?
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VTA and Caltrain had record ridership for the Super Bowl because of the demand and desire from sports fans to use transit. It's proof that they are looking for alternatives to driving. But the agencies also hamstrung themselves and missed some opportunities. For the World Cup, and future events, let's shoot for 50 percent of all sports fans to get there by rail and bike.
Got more ideas? Comment below.
