A limited number of special Papal Visit Three-Day Transit Passes for travel on the Trolley Routes 101/102 and Norristown High Speed Line will be made available through an online lottery scheduled to begin Wednesday, August 12.
The special Three-Day Transit Passes are $10 each, limited in quantity and required for travel on Trolley Routes 101/102 and Norristown High Speed Line during the Papal Visit. The passes are valid from Saturday, Sept. 26, through Monday, Sept. 28, and are being sold via a lottery to help alleviate congestion and enhance safe travel. Everyone using the Trolley Routes 101/102 and Norristown High Speed Line during the Papal visit weekend must have a special Three-Day Transit Pass.
The same lottery system, built in partnership with Philadelphia firm Ticketleap and hosted by Amazon.com, was successfully used for the sale of a special One-Day Regional Rail Pass.
The lottery system will allow customers to enter requests for passes over a 24-hour period – so there is no need to rush to the site. Ticketleap will launch the Papal Visit Three-Day Transit Pass lottery website on August 12. at 12:01 am, and keep it open until 11:59 pm A link will be provided on SEPTA’s website at www.septa.org when Ticketleap opens the site. All valid submissions will have the same chances of winning the lottery, regardless of what time they are submitted.
Once the lottery concludes, Ticketleap will generate a master list of all entries and analyze the data to remove fraudulent, duplicate and other suspicious entries. This will help ensure the passes are purchased by those who want to come to see the pope, and are also available for regular customers who need to get to work or have other travel needs. Customers who make multiple submissions could have their entries voided.
Here is the entry process for customers to enter the lottery for Papal Visit Three-Day Transit Passes:
- Any time on Wednesday, Aug. 12, click the “Enter Lottery” link that will be posted on SEPTA’s homepage, www.septa.org. This will take customers directly to the lottery form on Ticketleap’s website.
- This pass is valid for three days. You do not to have to select a specific travel date – passes are valid for travel Saturday, Sept. 26 through Monday, Sept. 28.
- Choose up to three preferred stations from the following list. The lottery will pick only one if entry is selected in the random drawing. The name of the station will be stamped on the back of each pass.
- Route 101 Trolley: Springfield Mall or Leamy Avenue
- Route 102 Trolley: North Street or Clifton-Aldan
- Norristown High Speed Line: Gulph Mills Station or Villanova Station
- Pick travel time slot from outlying stations, either 6 am-9:30 am or 9:30 am- 1 pm
- Quantity of passes: Customers can request up to 10 each day. Customers with a valid PA Disability Transit ID Card or Medicare Card can request one $5 reduced fare pass each day.
- Provide valid email address and contact information.
Valid entries will be put in a database and winners selected at random by Ticketleap. Customers with winning entries will receive an email on Friday, Aug. 14, with a personalized link to a secured page where they can complete their transaction with a debit or credit card. SEPTA will mail the passes to customers.
Please note that once customers travelling on the Trolley Routes 101/102 and Norristown High Speed arrive at 69th Street Transportation Center, they will need to transfer to the Market-Frankford Line for continuing service to the 30th Street Station. For additional travel details, please visit https://www.septa.org/fares/special-papal-visit.html.
In the coming weeks, the Mayor’s Office, the World Meeting of Families, SEPTA and our other partners will continue to provide additional information about all transportation options during the Papal Visit. Announcements will be made as soon as details are available.