SEPTA extends deadline for buying Regional Rail passes for Pope Francis' visit

SEPTA on Sunday extended the deadline for people to pay for Regional Rail passes reserved last week for Pope Francis' visit in September. The former deadline had been midnight Sunday. The new deadline is 3 p.m. Monday.

In an online lottery last Monday, SEPTA received requests for 328,045 passes, leaving more than 20,000 unsold.

SEPTA officials said then that they expected even more passes to be available because not all transactions would be completed, but they did not say Sunday how many of the passes for Sept. 26 and 27 had been purchased.

They said that incomplete transactions will be voided after the Monday deadline.

Unsold passes will be offered first to unsuccessful lottery applicants online, starting Monday, and then they will be sold at the downtown stations: 30th Street, Suburban, and Jefferson. They also may be sold at some outlying stations.

The passes, which are required for Regional Rail travel on the weekend of the pope's visit, cost $10 a day, half-price for seniors and disabled people.

Sales were limited to 10,000 a station a day at the 18 outlying stations that will be open for the papal visit.

SEPTA'S initial attempt last month to sell the passes online failed when its website crashed minutes after opening on July 20.

Starting Wednesday, SEPTA will hold a second online lottery to sell three-day papal passes for the trolley routes between the 69th Street Transportation Center and Sharon Hill and Media, as well as for the Norristown High Speed Line. The passes cost $10 each.