How to transport 96,000 people to Taylor Swift at the MCG 

That's the most awesome part. I have never once thought of even trying to drive to a Melbourne Sports Precinct event. Public Transport is soo much Easier.

its a good illustration of better urban design for americans

You'd be mad to even think of driving to the city during a big event like the grand final or a concert like this. Imagine the traffic on punt road/hoddle st!

So, where are all the parking? Serious question. I didn't watch the video. Asking for a friend.

@@kelsey_roy everyone caught public transport.

...as well as people going to Rod Laver Arena for Matchbox 20 on the friday night, and over 20k at AAMI Park on saturday night for the A-League game, as well as basketball games and so on. It's alway busy round there!

@@trikeabout Melbourne is a really impressive city

They did try and ask people to not go if they did not have a ticket but gave up after the first night.

Who counted the people outside?

I think similar to 90% of the civilized wordl

and he was trying to point out carpark buildings in the cbd as well to justify his point 😂 as if people would drive to the city, pay $100+ in parking and then walk to the mcg…

@@harryk8696 to be fair, some people do do that. Crown car parking was swamped with swifties. Still, nowhere near 50% of all attendees

@@angusmorris4154 how much of the crown parking would've been people staying overnight/on holiday?

he got ratio'd so fucking hard on that thread it's not even funny, 100k views but only 3 likes and about 70 replies

There were even news articles about people asking where everyone parks.

Yeah, I was one of them over the road... Even on the friday night when there was a game at AAMI plus Ms Swift and 96k of her friends, I dropped a mate home behind Richmond station on my way home from football out at Latrobe Uni... and was astonished that even with all the mayhem it was a normal run to Richmond then home. We do events well here.

and thousands of swifties out the front of the MCG too

not just grandfinal, prelims, eliminations and semi finals will fill up as well

Not to mention another concert was on at the tennis centre too. And when the mcg has afl and Aami park has nrl or a-league on as well. Or the cricket on during Australian open tennis. All in the same area.

@@gusdrivinginaustralia6168Yeah, I’m glad that we don’t have to be caught in a traffic jam for footy/concerts/other events. I just learned that the stadiums in the US always come with a super huge parking lot. Can’t imagine it.

A 80k attendees game at least per round

And any big clash between teams like Collingwood, Richmond, Carlton and Essendon. I think even Round 1 last season had 3 games over 80,000 people!

2 through Jolimont!

Shoot when Beyonce came to NY/NJ I took the train

Surely there must be like a direct train or a cross-platform interchange from the airport (or does Melbourne have multiple?)... Based on this video, Melbourne seems like the sort of city that would be proactive and careful enough to do this...

AirPort still an issue

@@mastertrams Nope, the Airport train has been argued for the last 30 years. To this day its still "We are gonna build it, cant afford it, we gonna build it, cant afford it."

Yep, public transport to the Perth Stadium is very impressive too! 👍

"The location of these stadiums is important: you put them where people can get to and from them easily and not in some outer suburban place where people are forced to drive." One of the big complaints people from certain places in Europe have about Melbourne public transport is just how hard it is to get to the outer suburbs with public transport compared to certain European cities. Like if I want to go from North to East I probably have to go through the city. It's a bit of a trade off and a bit of a failing, because the system is so city-centric we have slightly better transport to stuff in the city but we don't really have a proper grid system so getting to some places (Wantirna for example) requires a bit of creativity. I have to say though seeing how horrendous American public transport is makes me feel extremely grateful

@@yaboykirby7789 that's fair commentary but it's also a function of how our cities have evolved. They're young by European standards and have radiated out from a core or centre over the decades. I think it's natural for the transport networks to do the same. I'm fine with it, personally. Europe is also a lot more densely populated than OZ as well, which I'm convinced is a contributor. I travelled by rail through Europe last Christmas and it's a great experience, especially in Italy.

taitset spotted in the wild??

Hey! I was literally saying while I was at the concert I bet Taitset is gonna cover this

Was seriously wondering if Phil was Clark Kent Taitset.

Maybe going your own version

Now you've just jinxed the Sydney Train network! 🤣🤣

Yep, the locations of several of our big stadia in Australia has been deliberate, in terms of making them easy to get to/from. Adelaide Oval is in a fantastic spot.

Wollongabba, Gold Coast too.😊

Meanwhile for Swift's concert in Singapore it was one of only 2 that were available in Asia* so many fans at that concert were from other Asian countries and had flown in to see it, causing air ticket prices to reportedly rise to the level for long-haul flights! Some fans stayed in hotels in Batam & Johor Bahru in neighbouring Indonesia & Malaysia, which are cheaper, & then travelled into Singapore on the concert day (via ferry & bus respectively). I can imagine the border crossings getting more jammed as a result. The concert is at the National Stadium with 1 MRT (subway/metro) station just beside it; trains serving it might display messages telling you which station exit to use depending on which gate you're entering the stadium via. Then some fans were criticized for leaving before the concert ended, but they might've wanted to beat the crowd leaving the stadium when the concert ended, though I think local private-hire company Grab also chartered coaches to help transport fans to other train stations further away, to reduce overloading the station beside the stadium. *The company managing National Stadium had worked with the gov't to pay Swift a grant to get the exclusive right to stage her concert in SE Asia, to help boost Singapore's tourism. This was criticised by a senator from the Philippines: "That's not what friends to to each other". Thailand's PM had also expressed disappointment (their former PM is a fan too apparently). In response I think 1 of Singapore's ambassadors disparged them as a "sore loser".

Says 1985 on wiki, which confirms that. Wasn't able to cross reference, but it's the same year the light towers were first used for an event. So, makes sense. I thought I could remember seeing it just as 'Jolimont' but I wasn't catching trains before I was feeding myself 😅

@@slowmammal I reckon it was done when the green & yellow Met signage first went in.

Ah thank you, I clearly need to be more observant!

Agreed. I did drive to my outer suburban railway station and parked there then took the train. That was at 3pm on the Friday and already there were a lot of Swifties in the carriages. I believe it was well publicised to ticket holders to take public transport where possible and arrive early.

I use to live 5-10 min walk from Camberwell station, our street was full at 7am by people driving to the station, and going into the city..

Glad to hear they did a good job. It was absolutely shambolic for footy finals in September.

Unfortunately, only a few US cities have usable public transport. Most of the country is very car-dependent. Most of our stadiums have a massive amount of adjacent land devoted to car parking. Go to Google Maps and take a look, for example at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. More land devoted to cars than to the actual stadium.

That's kind of emblematic of Melbourne's public transport. Amazing if you're in the CBD but weird little oversights that add up if you're outside it

wow i though melbourne was just a city in Florida lol

@@josuenogueras7141 it is and was named after Melbourne Australia

Thanks very much, and great photo! :)

Shame they dont do the same with trains. The fare gates at Richmond are such a bottleneck.

@@commanderbluyI feel like even if they made it free, there would be safety and security concerns around not using the fare gates at major stations. Richmond should only really be a bottleneck if they have them set to have too many in the wrong direction, which I have experienced after a concert. Although I wondered if this was intentional in order to not flood he platforms too quickly, which is also a bit of a safety concern considering how dangerous Melbournes platforms are.

To clarify, they were free - they extended the Free Tram Zone to the MCG for the days of the concert

Thank you, and thanks for saying hi!

Sorry you had to go through that. suspected this would be the case so opted to drive to a friend's place in Fitzroy and walk half an hour to the MCG.

I agree. In theory it should also allow them to build a bigger stadium than they otherwise would've as they'll be able to allocate more of the budget towards the stadium itself, rather than the car parking for it (especially if it has to be multi-deck).

@@tonydarcy7475 it's just such a waste of prime highly valuable city land that can be used for so much better applications

Thanks you too! May cover this topic more in-depth in the future

Every time I have been to Sydney Olympic Stadium the trains have been a disaster.

@@listey I've only been once and it was for a Bledisloe game where 70k+ were in attendance. I didn't find it to be too bad to be honest.

@@adam872 Wallabies v B&I Lions in 2013 and Bledisloe in 2015 were both chaotic (84k and 74k respectively apparently). But in writing this I realise that's much longer ago than I remember it being!! Probably things have improved..

A rail line to Rowville and catering for Waverley Park was suggested. But never happened. Rowville residents might feel like Doncaster now.

Watch this space! May be a video soon on this very topic :)

@@railtrolley waverley park I believe was supposed to have a capacity of 150k with just the one train line, it would have not been nearly enough

@@mathewferstl7042 Single track? I have never seen the plans, so didn't know what they would look like. Hopefully, the planners would have looked at the flemington/showgrounds line, for inspiration.

@@railtrolley sorry it was going to be dual track. I meant a single line. Sorry for the confusion

Thanks! On Sydney, Building Beautifully has made a short video on this over on Tiktok, and I'd suspect that there may be more coming soon www.tiktok.com/@buildingbeautifully/video/7337847574939864327

I could see value in having additional services labeled as event services going to Richmond, but would hope they don’t divert 100% of traffic, cause it would suck for the commuter who doesn’t need to be slowed down by the extra traffic.

Good question, not sure!

it was, the grass parking was available for all 3 of the concerts but it was accessible parking only and you had to reserve it online

Yeah there were heaps of people walking from every direction!

The oldest trams in the network date back to the 1920’s (which is one reason trams are such good value, high lifespans). Most trams built after the 1990’s are low-floor and fully accessible, but a significant amount in service were build in the 70’s and 80’s before the disability act came in.

a lot of old high-floor trams are still in use because they're reliable and make up a very large chunk of the fleet (about half) so getting rid of them would make the service frequency drastically worse, and certain routes that are only served by older trams (the 82 or the 59 for example) wouldn't have any trams in their depot to operate

Probably! I don't recall seeing any and I didn't hear anything about things breaking

I went there only to film the video, I didn't go to the concert itself (nice pun)

Our trams are generally classes based on model, with the older models having the designations Z, A and B (and W, for the historic city circle tram) and having a floor above the wheels, meaning there are stairs up to board the tram. The newer trams, C, D and E are all low-floor and have designated space for those using mobility aids to 'park'. These newer trams are also great for those with prams or luggage, which is a nice bonus. However, for the trams to be fully and easily accessible, the stop needs to have a platform that is level with the entrance to the tram, rather than street level, where the driver would have to deploy a ramp (I personally have never seen this occur). This is the main reason some lines don't run low floor trams normally, there aren't enough level boarding stops to justify it. The proposed G class (they skipped F!) trams will also be low-floor and I believe the plan is to make the whole fleet low-floor gradually by displacing the older trams with new ones. I hope this explanation makes sense!

There virtually already is with the platforms and exits on the west of the Richmond station. It would be a great idea to cover the railway and put a park on top.