SEPTA Regional Rail Passes For Papal Visit Go On Sale Online
By Mark Abrams
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Special passes for SEPTA regional rail service during the visit of Pope Francis to Philadelphia at the end of September are now on sale.
The one-day passes cost $10 a piece and are being sold only online through a link at the transit agency's website.
The passes will only be good at a specific station and for two specific morning departure times, either 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. or 8:30 a.m. to noon each day.
Return trips to the stations will begin at 5:30 p.m. and continue until midnight each day.
No other fares, including Trail Passes or cash, will be accepted on the regional rails that last weekend of September.
SEPTA plans to have only 18 stations open along the regional rails so it can run express-style service that weekend into the city. All other stations will be closed during the weekend. The Airport Line, however, will operate modified inbound and outbound service throughout the weekend.
And, SEPTA is limiting the number of passes it will sell for each day - Sept. 26 and Sept. 27 - to only 175,000 per day.
So, if you're planning on using the rails that weekend, officials say now is the time to buy, because the passes are expected to sell out quickly.
"It's very important for people to get (online) as soon as possible, you know, when they go on sale," says SEPTA's Heather Redfern, "because we don't know when they're going to sell out. So the sooner that you can get online, make your decision, the better."
PATCO also began selling one-day passes today through its website. Those passes go for $5 a day.
PATCO says it will honor Freedom cards already held by those who have them.
If you were planning on using SEPTA buses, trolleys and subways on the papal weekend, you'll be able to get passes for those trips online starting July 27.
Many commuters were experiencing trouble accessing the website when the passes went on sale Monday morning. SEPTA closed the site while it worked to resolve the issue, saying it was not a purchasing problem and that once the site was fixed, people would be able to go online and purchase passes.
