PATCO Plans Unchanged For Papal Visit
By David Madden
CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) -- Seven weeks before Pope Francis's arrival in Philadelphia. We now know part of the game plan for securing center city.
How does that affect your mass transit options? On the PATCO high-speed line in South Jersey, you will need a Freedom card or a pre-purchased pass to ride. No cash or credit cards will be taken that weekend.
PATCO GM John Rink says express runs from Lindenwold, Woodcrest, Ferry Avenue and Broadway will take riders to the only Philadelphia stop at 9th-10th and Locust.
"The trains will leave those 4 stations every 16 minutes," Rink tells KYW Newsradio, "thereby putting arrival times of a train every 4 minutes at 9th and 10th streets.
All service will be into the city each day until 4 p.m., then east into New Jersey from 5 p.m. on.
Those eastbound runs will make all 4 South Jersey stops.
As for Monday, when the Pope will be long gone, Rink says service will be provided to all 13 As for how service will run in Philadelphia, that's still a work in progress.
"We are running various, different scenarios on the level of service we'll provide that day," Rink said, "and there are numerous factors that'll generate what level of service we'll run that day."
And don't forget. You'll need a freedom card or a special Papal weekend ticket to ride PATCO. No cash or credit cards. There are still some 80 thousand of those passes available.
