2015 Papal visit

Saturday night: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real ... +Real+Time" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tom Mellett and Maureen Schmidt stood on the corner of Filbert and 11th streets as things died down along the parkway. Old friends who were reunited in line, both were attempting to catch the Lansdale/Doylestown line. Still with dozens in line ahead of them, both had been waiting in a line that "wrapped around the block" for about 45 minutes.

"This thing just isn't moving," Mellett said. Both left the parkway around 9 p.m., he said, but Mellett stopped for a beer on the way to the train.

"My friend who didn't stop for a beer already made it home," he said. "Guess that's a lesson: drink at home."

Large crowds have begun packing platforms along SEPTA’s Center City Regional Rail lines as the first of Pope Francis's two days in Philadelphia is coming to a close.

SEPTA Releases Ridership Numbers for 1st Day of Papal Visit
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/loc ... 77611.html

SEPTA officials released their ridership numbers at 18 rail stations that were in service for the Papal visit Saturday. Take a look at the numbers below:

Nomis (SS) and Everyone:

Interesting preliminary Regional Rail ridership numbers for Saturday September 26th...

Paoli - closely followed by Radnor - had the highest ridership and the lowest was somewhat surprising - Marcus Hook was even lower
then Eastwick - which I speculated would be at the bottom of the list here.

The Inquirer posted an even more interesting chart showing the number of passes actually used as opposed to those sold -
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pope/ ... Taken.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

What I believe did happen in the subject of these special Papal Passes is that a percentage was bought by people that had no real
interest in the Papal Visit events - instead purchasing them to resell at a substantial profit on sites like EBay and Craigslist - and when
it actually turned out that only a limited percentage of these passes were sold these folks more then likely are now stuck with passes
that they had no intention to use or take part in any of the Papal Visit weekend events.

I believe the numbers for Sunday September 27th will be very different with the single largest event - the 4pm Papal Mass on the BFP
slated to draw the largest crowds scheduled for today...

The "exodus" from Philadelphia this evening following the conclusion of the Papal Mass - and the Pope's motorcade down to PHL for the
Atlantic Aviation farewell at 7pm followed by Pope Francis's scheduled departure for Rome at 8pm - will be memorable to say the least -
All transport facilities leading out of Center City will be busy - which may be a understatement. After reading about some waits for trains
out of Jefferson Station at Market East it will be interesting to note the wait times at the peak getaway hours this evening...

Monday September 28th is going to be a day for Center City Philadelphia to switch into "recovery" mode and get back to normal
for Tuesday - when most workers should return downtown and mass transport getting back to weekday scheduling.

I do agree with those mentions of literally closing Center City for multiple days was not necessary - and it will be interesting to
note how Center City's economy fared - or suffered - during the Papal Visit...

MACTRAXX

I had been intending to stay in town this weekend, but family obligations called me away at the last minute. Anecdotally, coming back from the airport via the 37-BSL route, there were still crowds of people headed south on Broad Street towards the stadiums, whether on foot, by packed subway trains, or by bus, at 8:00 PM. Meanwhile, at least as of 8:15, there was essentially nobody waiting to go northbound at any BSL stations. So it seems like the crowding was very uneven compared to capacity.

Everyone:

The Inquirer posted these figures in a Papal Visit "By the Numbers" article:

Estimated attendance for Sunday afternoon Ben Franklin Parkway Papal Mass: 860,000

SEPTA Regional Rail Papal Passes - Total Available: 328,000; Sold: 123,295;
Saturday Ridership: 28,575; Sunday Ridership: 34,371 - Total: 62,946

PATCO - Special Passes Available: 75,000; Sold: 17,000; Total Saturday/Sunday Ridership: 25,961

MACTRAXX wrote:Everyone:

The Inquirer posted these figures in a Papal Visit "By the Numbers" article:

Estimated attendance for Sunday afternoon Ben Franklin Parkway Papal Mass: 860,000

SEPTA Regional Rail Papal Passes - Total Available: 328,000; Sold: 123,295;
Saturday Ridership: 28,575; Sunday Ridership: 34,371 - Total: 62,946

PATCO - Special Passes Available: 75,000; Sold: 17,000; Total Saturday/Sunday Ridership: 25,961

Its amusing going back and reading the hysterical comments about how SEPTA would not be able to handle the ridership. Congrats SEPTA, you were successful in scaring people away from using your system. They do say its easier to run trains when you dont have to deal with those pesky passengers.

A 7% public transit mode share for an event where private cars were essentially banned is a shockingly poor statistic. SEPTA should be ashamed.

Septa was going to fail regardless, if all the expected people had ridden the system would have melted down, as it turns out the moved a lot less than expected, septa weren't the ones to scare the people away, the extreme security and outside entities scared people away, they just didn't want to be bothered with it, septa had to provide a service plan the secret service and organizers were happy with, they complied with what they were asked to do.

As for the system, I heard here were crew issues on Sunday, but trains still ran, the infrastructure actually held up quite well, no massive switch failures, no big time train failures and the wires stayed up.

With how it unfolded I would say aside from the issues people had (not enough parking, stations closed, not allowed to use regular passes) septa did very well in the movement of the people that used the system.

Before I go, I would like to say:

I worked as a civil engineer for a private company who had to deal with plenty of Govt / quasi-govt organizations. These orgs were not easy to deal with but SEPTA took the cake. Anyone who knew me professionally at my last position would laugh if they saw some of the stuff that I posted on here. SEPTA was the main target of my criticism and rants for close to a decade - and PennDOT was always running a neck behind them. I cannot believe that I have actually defended these two on these boards. Just reading some of my posts makes me want to run to the shower.

Seriously, when I had to work with either of these two orgs, I looked forward to taking the day off for a root canal. Although, I do have praise for most of the people I worked with in these two orgs, but the tops of these orgs made you want to pull your hair out. Having to work with both at the same time a few years ago made me run to the comfort and ease of managing heavy railroad construction projects for a freight railroad. Never thought 16 hour days out in the field would be so easy compared to eight in an office dealing with SEPTA issues. So yes, I had some major issues with SEPTA professionally and I have not forgotten after moving on. In saying that...

Mr Sinclair. Congratulations for writing one of the most ignorant posts I've ever read on this board. It's one thing being on team "I hate SEPTA", but that post belongs in the special olympics. Seriously, you claimed to have read all the posts, but it appears you did not comprehend anything that was written and explained multiple times. Also, SEPTA was one of many who had to plan for huge numbers that ended up being slammed down by the security plan. The only ones who truly benefitted from this event are the food banks and homeless shelters / soup kitchens.

As for everyone else, it was great; I even respected those I disagreed with as I enjoy a debate or just plain arguing. Take care and be safe. The Sarge has left the building....

Sarge:

I thought I was the only one that noticed the scarcity of homeless people on Monday (the day after).

I jokingly commented to a colleague on Monday that there wasn't a single homeless person at Suburban Station, hanging outside 7-11, or Love Park.

It's as if they beamed them all back up to the mother ship.

According to KYW, SEPTA counted about 55,000 boardings on Sunday at PAT&Tison Avenue Station:

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/0 ... l-weekend/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“We had approximately 55-thousand people ride from the stadium complex to the Walnut-Locust station,” says [Andrew Busch], “so we saw a significant number of people use that option.”

No word on ridership at the other BSL stations, or the MFL, or the Trolleys, or local buses outside the "Francis Festival Zone".

CCM:

I like that title "PAT&Tison" for the "AT&T Sports Complex Station" - Why did I not think of that one?
This may have been the compromise station name combining the established name with this naming rights change...

SEPTA should release the final Papal Visit numbers such as the RRD Papal Passes sold and/or used for Sunday 9/27 - and ridership figures
for all the operating rail routes - and in this case the BSL PAT&Tison to Walnut-Locust segment had decent ridership - the move to
establish bus parking at the Sports Complex parking lots for the Papal Visit weekend was a good one...

MACTRAXX

There is a lot of blame to go around from the Mayor, Septa, PennDOT and the SS. My beef is with septa. Regional rail, they didn't want a repeat of the issue from the Phillies parade. Well at least they moved more people that day than during the Papal weekend where making the system extremely inconvenient with limited stations and special ticket scared away riders. I'd rather wait in line for an hour to get on a crowded train to my regular station than wait an hour to go to one of the few stations open that is no where near my home. Regional rail plan, epic fail.

MFL, fewer people rode the el than during a normal Saturday. Why? Because Septa closed stations and made the system inconvenient. As far as the Broad Street Subway, its great that is carried a lot of people on Sunday. But the subway has excess capacity and can carry more passengers. Extend express service to the statiums, like on game day. But no reason to shut down stations.

Septa, stop over-reacting to crowds. I've ridden on transit in major cities in the U.S. And internationally, our trains are NOT crowded.

I like to here from any one that rode the trains home where every seat was taken and passengers were filling the aisles and doorways. Post pics of these crowded trains.

Everyone:

There is a Inquirer article currently that gives some indication about the attendance of last Sunday's Papal Mass:

There were 260,000 Communion Wafers given out of a total of 300,000 that were made available during the Mass.

SEPTA reported that a total of 387,000 riders used available rail transit into Center City on both Papal Visit days.

This sentence caught my eye concerning the final estimated crowd total of 860,000 that came for the Sunday Papal Mass:
"Accurate counts are difficult in absence of a confined ticketed admission space"

This also does not count those interested in attending the Papal Mass that either were stuck in security lines or did not try
to attempt to enter staying outside of the secure zone.

The original estimate of 860,000 may well be wrong and in time when more information is available we all can get a better
idea of about how large the 9/27 Papal Mass crowd actually was...

MACTRAXX