You’ve got to hand it to them: whoever planned the train exodus out of Sydney Olympic Park after Friday night’s first Taylor Swift concert is a mastermind. Living up to what was promised, the trains departed every five minutes, and the vast majority of the 81,000 Swifties present made it out of the venue within an hour of the final song.

After the chaos that engulfed the city last time we held a major event, it’s a feat worth applauding. Sydney’s transport network had the chance to shine with 300,000 bejewelled journeys, and it did. It’s just a shame taxi drivers didn’t get the message.

Sydney taxis must use their meters to set the fares – every time, without exception.Credit: Anna Kucera

After arriving at Central Station on one of the last trains back at 1am, having reported on the concert from outside the stadium, all the bus services I’d normally catch home had ended for the evening, effectively forcing me to take a cab or Uber.

And as I ventured off the Grand Concourse, I witnessed what could only be described as Swift-induced chaos. Hundreds of people were attempting to get a cab home with no marshalling or management, and that made it prime fodder for a good old-fashioned taxi rip off.

My suspicion was first raised when a woman and her elderly mother were turned away from one cab. Before I could tell him my destination, that driver defended himself: “They were only going 500 metres!“

So I wasn’t surprised when he demanded $50 for my 15-minute trip home. When I requested to pay what the meter said at the end of our trip, he, with masterful choreography that wouldn’t be out of place at the concert, raised his middle finger and drove off.

The same thing happened with the next cab I approached, except he also wanted it upfront in cash (a driver is allowed to request payment ahead of the trip if they’re concerned you aren’t able to pay, but this price was clearly a rort).

It was at that point, when I thought things couldn’t get much classier, that another driver, in some fit of rage, had got out of his car, marched up to the driver in front of him and began aggressively filming him through the window and over the bonnet of his car, only for that driver to begin lurching forward, beginning to run him over.