30th Street to Citizens Bank Park

what it the best way to get from 30th street station the the new phillies ball park?

You didn't say how you were arriving at 30th street so I've tried to cover the major options. If I missed something, just add a post.
Important - see fare information, below -

1. If you are arriving at 30th St. via Amtrak, go out of the station on the 30th Street exit and find a Market-Frankford subway entrance on Market Street. There will be a concourse one level down, with the subway tracks on the second level below. Make sure you board the subway itself from the inner platform. Don't get on the similarly-named subway-surface lines which are underground trolleys!

Take the Market-Frankford line eastbound to 15th Street (the next stop). When you get off, walk toward the front of the train and follow the signs to the Broad Street Subway. Be careful to stay inside the turnstiles so you can make a free transfer. Otherwise you will have to pay a second fare! Take the Broad Street line south to Pattison and walk east to Citizen's Park.

Alternately, you can use your Amtrak ticket to take the commuter rail line to Suburban Station and follow the directions in #2 below.

2. If you are arriving by SEPTA commuter rail, don't get off at 30th Street. Go to Suburban Station and walk about a block east underground. Follow the signs to the Broad Street line and take it south.

3. If you are arriving by the Market-Frankford line, get off at 15th Street instead of 30th and follow the directions for transferring in #1 above.

To go back, simply reverse the process.

Unfortunately SEPTA in its infinite inefficiency does not provide a joint fare between the commuter rail system and the subway lines. You'll have to pay a separate fare on the subway no matter where you board. DO NOT pay the $2 cash fare that you'll see advertised. Buy a pair of tokens either from a token vending machine or, if you can find one, a cashier. You have to buy at least two but I assume you are returning on SEPTA as well. The tokens will save you $1.40 (35%!) over the round trip cash fare and make boarding loads easier since you can use the turnstiles instead of waiting to hand over cash. Also, if you're not taking Amtrak and are using the SEPTA commuter rail lines, be sure you have your return ticket with you or buy it at the ticket window. You may have bought a ticket on the train when you came in, but outbound, at Suburban or 30th St., the wonderful, helpful folks at SEPTA will charge yet another 2 bucks for the "privilege" of paying on board the train.

Great system, huh?

Mr Met,

The best wat to get from 30th St to CBP is when you get off the train,Go out the 30th St side of the station,walk towards Market St and you'll see the Subway entrance on the corner,go down,the fare is $2,but you might want to go to the token vending machaine and buy a 2 pack of tokens,its a little cheaper,take the Market Frankford blue line eastbound,get off at the very next stop which is 15th St,follow the sign for the Broad St subway which is the orange line,that is the City Hall stop,take the orange line south bound to the last stop which is Pattison Ave,Come upstairs,walk one block east and you'll see CBP on your left.Going back,just take the orange line northbound back to City Hall,then change to the blue line west bound and get off at 30th St.Hope you enjoy the game and the new park.Let us know how you make out.


No offense,but...GO PHILLIES!

Actually Jeff,you said that better,I forgot to say stay with in the turnstiles b/c alot of people who aren't familiar with the system have a habit of going through the exits mistakenly.If he is from NYC,I'm sure he might know that since transfers are free within the system :D

Thanks for the compliment. We must have been typing at the same time! I know I've put my digs in about how confusing the system is, but I've seen too many people get all out of whack and go the wrong way, or pay double or even triple what they should have. It's not a good way to make visitors feel welcome. I've had less trouble navigating transit systems in Europe where I knew 10 words of the local language than I've had on some parts of SEPTA.

Mr. Met, enjoy your visit to Philly, but I gotta say it . .

Thome and Abreu rule!

JeffK wrote:
1. If you are arriving at 30th St. via Amtrak, go out of the station on the 30th Street exit and find a Market-Frankford subway entrance on Market Street. There will be a concourse one level down, with the subway tracks on the second level below. Make sure you board the subway itself from the inner platform. Don't get on the similarly-named subway-surface lines which are underground trolleys!

So, why not the trolleys?
They go to the exact same place as the El.
The trolleys have the same free transfer to the Broad Street Subway.
They run as often, if not more often than the El.

The free transfer between Subway Surface Trolley and the Broad Street Subway is even a little more direct, or at least seems less byzantine than the El to Broad Street Subway transfer.

Hal

we may go to a phillies game when we are in alticnic city so we problbay come in from njt

Hal wrote:So, why not the trolleys?

I though about including them but remember, we're familiar with all of the ins and outs of the Center City connections. Based on my experiences getting around unfamiliar cities, I felt that someone who's new to SEPTA and its quirks would be better off sticking to one route. I was afraid that I might have already hit the verbal overspeed warning with 3 sets of instructions, let alone 4.

As a former teacher, I've been accused of telling people how to build a watch when all they wanted to know was what time it is.

I think this is a prime example of how confusing and sartan the septa system is. A visitor wants to go from one major philly location to another. Look at all the information that is needed for this simple trip. I totally understand that the OP was a mets fan and confusion is expected, but the subway surface lines vs the mfl between 30th and 15th conundrum has the potential to break all but the hardest of strap-hangars. Jeffk was very wise to keep it mfl - bsl all the way. I should mention that since the mfl and the bsl do not have any number or letter designations and the subway-surface lines are numbered, the hardest of all wanderers would just sit down and give up in utter confusion.

Now that pattison = at&t station and market east = Jefferson station, i do not see how an out of area visitor could even attempt to see a ballgame in our wonderful city traveling via septa. Such a confusing system may chase potential visitors to boston instead. Seeing the at&t and jefferson station names does make me throw up a little in my mouth, but i really do wonder if anyone ever went to the at&t station to buy a new cell phone, to citizens bank park to apply for an SBA loan, or to jefferson hospital to catch the local to Glenside? Anyone know of this happening?

Why are we digging up a thread from 12 years ago?

Ya, 2004 is a hell of a zombie thread pull.

roadmaster wrote: Such a confusing system may chase potential visitors to boston instead.

Where the Fenway station is not the best stop for Fenway Park for almost anyone? Where the directions for Mr. Yankee would be along the lines of "Go from the South Station waiting room to the Red Line platforms, take the Red Line to Park Street [Under], take the steps up to the Green Line tracks. Don't get on an E-line train (if you do, get off before Copley), and ride to Kenmore (D- and B-line trains will be massively crowded, so you might want to wait for a C-line train). Of course, it might just be easier to get off your Amtrak train at Back Bay and walk to Copley. Or get off Amtrak at Back Bay, Orange Line to Downtown Crossing, and take the passageway to Park. Or if the phase of the moon is right, you can almost certainly ride for free from either Back Bay or South Station to Yawkey." The directions seem shorter, but relative to the net distance from Back Bay or South Station to Fenway Park?

ekt8750 wrote:Why are we digging up a thread from 12 years ago?

If you have not been paying attention, it appears that puling threads that have not seen a post for +1 year is the current trend. Why not go back further through the history of the rr.net septa forum? Postings have been very light and new topics even lighter. so I get the trend and decided to join in the zombie thread apocalypse - and the reverse equipment thread was getting way too exciting for me to jump into.

It is also something to do why we anxiously await for a post updating the graffiti work adorning the equipment sitting in the overbook yard.

leviramsey wrote:Where the Fenway station is not the best stop for Fenway Park for almost anyone? Where the directions for Mr. Yankee would be along the lines of "Go from the South Station waiting room to the Red Line platforms, take the Red Line to Park Street [Under], take the steps up to the Green Line tracks. Don't get on an E-line train (if you do, get off before Copley), and ride to Kenmore (D- and B-line trains will be massively crowded, so you might want to wait for a C-line train). Of course, it might just be easier to get off your Amtrak train at Back Bay and walk to Copley. Or get off Amtrak at Back Bay, Orange Line to Downtown Crossing, and take the passageway to Park. Or if the phase of the moon is right, you can almost certainly ride for free from either Back Bay or South Station to Yawkey." The directions seem shorter, but relative to the net distance from Back Bay or South Station to Fenway Park?

I went through this first hand, real fun - along a few 1000 drunks made it even more fun. but I assumed Boston would be less confusing because only the green line trolleys have letter designations.