\u201cAfter the Super Bowl 60 game, VTA safely moved more than 15,000 passengers from Levi\u2019s Stadium by bus and light rail within 90 minutes \u2014 beating the NFL\u2019s two-hour crowd management benchmark,\u201d VTA spokeswoman Stacey Hendler Ross told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cWhile short waits are expected when tens of thousands of fans depart a venue at once, VTA teams efficiently moved record numbers of riders. \u2026 This was a significant public transit achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some riders, VTA light rail required more than a little patience. One of those riders, Erik Schoennauer, a land use consultant who lives in San Jose, has notched about 30 trips to events at Levi\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were squeezed on like sardines,\u201d Schoennauer told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/p>\n
Schoennauer arrived at the Japantown\/Ayer station at 11 a.m. on game day and didn\u2019t get on a train for 40 minutes, as one full train passed the station without stopping. Once on board, the packed train passed stations further up the line. He later left the game early to beat the crowd, only to be told trains wouldn\u2019t run until the game was over.<\/p>\n
\u201cI witnessed a few thousand people, coming and going, who were confused and annoyed,\u201d Schoennauer said.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s not the experience we want our visitors to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lety Cavlan, a freelance camera operator in San Jose who worked at the Super Bowl, had no trouble getting to the stadium from the Hostetter station because she left home at 6 a.m.<\/p>\n
Returning home from the Lick Mill station next to the stadium at 9:15 p.m. was tougher. Cavlan had to wait 30 minutes for a train to arrive and another 10 minutes for the train to depart.<\/p>\n
The train initially showed it running on the Green Line, then suddenly switched to the Orange Line, which goes to Cavlan\u2019s stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat confused a lot of people,\u201d Cavlan told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cBut they did make a lot of announcements about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cavlan helped out-of-town riders who wanted to get downtown by telling them to ride a few stops on the Orange Line, which doesn\u2019t go there, then get off and order an Uber or Lyft.<\/p>\n
Monica Mallon, a local transit advocate and San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight columnist<\/a>, didn\u2019t have a Super Bowl ticket but traveled on public transit to the stadium to see for herself how VTA performed.<\/p>\n \u201cI noticed that there were a lot of ambassadors and signs to help riders and visitors get where they needed to go,\u201d Mallon told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cThere was of course some level of chaos and crowding as there is with any major event, but I was very impressed overall \u2026 VTA was able to meet the moment, provide safe and reliable service and carry tens of thousands of passengers to and from the game.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Keep](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769027829_854_interactive-184632509590.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n