Data From The Papal Pass Lottery Is In, Winners Will Find Out On Thursday
By Tim Jimenez
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- SEPTA's Papal Pass Lottery closed just before midnight and the numbers are in.
The transit agency reports 38,013 entries are in for a chance to buy the special regional rail passes for the weekend of the Pope's visit - September 26 and 27. Was the demand lower than expected?
"We'll have to see," said spokeswoman Jerri Williams. "Each entry doesn't tell the whole story. We need to look at how many passes were requested. With each entry you could request 10 passes for Saturday and 10 passes for Sunday."
Williams said the entries averaged 6-7 passes for each day the last weekend in September. In all, 350,000 are being made available. Entrants were able to select three of the 18 regional rail stations as possible starting points.
"There's a good possibility that if we did not sell out all of our passes, we sold out passes at certain stations," she said. "So, if we're lucky, everyone got one of their choices."
On Thursday, August 6, emails will start to go out to the randomly selected winners. They will get access to a link where they can buy the passes. Williams said winners will be notified through Sunday, August 9, so those who do not get an email right away are not out of the running yet.
As for the lottery process, following a failed attempt to sell passes first-come, first-served, Williams said it was smooth sailing. TicketLeap, the local company working with SEPTA, has been going through the entries and will spend Tuesday and Wednesday doing so as well, checking for suspicious entries and duplicates.
"There was one instance where (TicketLeap) saw somebody had entered 74 times. Those entries were removed," Williams said.
What happens after the regional rail papal pass situation is sorted out? There will be another lottery. Williams said SEPTA will have one for the Norristown High Speed Line and Trolley Routes 101 and 102. That announcement is planned for the end of the week. The agency will then turn its attention to city transit - subways, buses and regular trolleys.
"That's going to be done mostly through brick and mortar sales," Williams said.
