August 07, 2015
SEPTA is hosting a lottery to sell three-day transit passes needed to travel on the Norristown High Speed Line and Trolley routes 101 and 102 during the papal visit — just as it did with its regional rail system.
A limited number of passes will be made available through an online lottery slated to begin Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. The passes, which cost $10, are valid from Saturday Sept. 26 through Monday, Sept. 28.
Pope Francis will participate in the Festival of Families on Saturday and host a Sunday mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, an event expected to draw 1.5 million people into Center City. The Secret Service has established a "traffic box" mostly limiting traffic to emergency vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians within Center City.
SEPTA is selling 20,000 passes for the Norristown High Speed Line and 5,600 for each trolley route. Regular fares won't be accepted to travel on those routes on Saturday or Sunday. But they will be accepted on Monday.
Customers can request passes from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. A link will be available on SEPTA's website when Ticketleap opens the lottery.
Only two stops will be open on each route, an effort to expedite customers into Center City for the papal visit. Customers must select preferred departure times and stations when making their lottery submissions.
Route 101 will be leaving from the Springfield Mall and Leamy Avenue stations. Route 102 will depart from North Street and Clifton-Aldan stations. The Norristown High Speed Line will depart from Gulph Mills and Villanova stations.
Customers can request up to 10 passes.
SEPTA used the same lottery system, built in partnership with the Philadelphia-based Ticketleap and hosted by Amazon.com, to sell one-day papal passes needed to ride SEPTA's regional railways during the papal visit.
Spokeswoman Heather Redfern said SEPTA will not be holding lotteries for passes on any other routes.
SEPTA also will sell special three-day transit passes to ride its subways, buses and remaining trolleys during the papal visit. A sale date for those passes, which cost $10, has not been announced. However, standard tokens and trans passes also will be accepted on the subways, buses and remaining trolleys.
