SEPTA: Airport line will operate every 30 minutes during papal visit

To accommodate passengers and employees at Philadelphia International Airport during the pope's visit, SEPTA will run its Airport Regional Rail Line in and out of the city every 30 minutes all day and evening, but with stops at only two other stations.

In interviews Wednesday, SEPTA officials described rail- and bus-route adjustments for people leaving the airport on Sept. 26 and 27, and for workers and travelers heading there.

The Airport Line will be an express to University City and Jefferson Stations. It will not stop at Eastwick, 30th Street, or Suburban Stations or points beyond.

SEPTA's assistant general manager of operations, Ron Hopkins, offered these details:

Passengers on arriving flights will be able to buy $10 Papal Passes for the train at airport terminals.

Area residents can pay to park in an airport lot and take the train into Center City.

Riders with Papal Passes will get "priority" boarding between 5:30 and 8 a.m. that weekend. After 8 a.m. both days, SEPTA will accept regular airport fare tickets or TransPasses on the airport train.

Airport-bound employees and travelers must enter Jefferson Station on Filbert Street at 12th Street. No Papal Passes will be required; regular SEPTA tickets can be used at all times.

For airport employees, "our plan is to have a couple early-morning trains, like at 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m.," Hopkins said. "Our final schedule will be coming out shortly."

The last airport train will leave Jefferson Station at 11:25 p.m. The last train will leave the airport around midnight.

SEPTA stressed that riders must have their tickets ahead of time, either a regular fare or a Papal Pass. Tickets will not be sold on the train.

Papal Passes for arriving airline passengers will be sold by SEPTA outside the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints in Terminals A, B, C, and D. Announcements in the terminals will alert travelers, the transit agency said.

In addition to the train, SEPTA will operate two buses to the airport that weekend. Route 108 will depart the 69th Street Transportation Center regularly, similar to its weekday schedule. Route 37 will leave Broad and Snyder Streets on its normal weekend schedule.

"If people decide to drive and park at the airport to take the train, they need to have prepurchased their fare before they get there," SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said. "We are only selling tickets and passes at the airport to people arriving on a flight."

SEPTA said it plans to announce its broader bus-transportation plan, including which routes will be suspended during the papal visit, at a news conference Thursday. The transit agency said it had not finalized plans for resumption of Regional Rail and bus service on Sept. 28.

The Philadelphia airport has 20,000 "badged" employees, including airline flight crews, retail and concessions employees, TSA workers, baggage handlers, gate and ticket agents, janitors, and maintenance staff.

But they do not all work the same shifts, and not all work on weekends, airport spokeswoman Mary Flannery said. For example, only 500 of the city Division of Aviation's 800 employees will be working the weekend of the pope's visit, she said.

American Airlines, Philadelphia's dominant carrier, said it had not seen a rise in bookings for the World Meeting of Families Sept. 22 to 25 or for the papal weekend.

"We have not seen an increase in reservations other than what we normally have at this time of year," spokeswoman Victoria Lupica said. "We have not added flights, because there's not a demand right now."

About 2,100 of American's 8,300 employees based in Philadelphia work on weekends. "We are not increasing the number. It will just be business as usual," Lupica said.

It is expected that many of those coming for the pope will arrive by bus.

Airport workers and travelers who can't get to the train or a bus can drive to the airport and park in lots there. Badged airport workers can park free in a large employee lot.

"We are encouraging managers and supervisors to talk to their employees to figure out how they are going to get to work," Flannery said.

Both I-95 and I-476 will be open, as will the Walt Whitman and Commodore Barry Bridges.

American is "working individually with our employees who may be affected," Lupica said. "If you live in New Jersey, you can come across the Walt Whitman Bridge and go to work, as you would any other day."

SEPTA is encouraging passengers arriving on flights to take the train.

"Thinking you are going to get a taxi into Philadelphia could be challenging," Hopkins said.

"Any shuttle, any taxi, is going to be stopped at the traffic box, and the traveler will have to take their luggage and continue on foot to their hotel," Williams said. "SEPTA is the best option."