Philadelphia

More Than 38,000 Sign Up for SEPTA's Pope Passes

SEPTA received more than 38,000 entries in an online lottery for special rail passes to be used during Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia. A SEPTA official told NBC10 that while there were around 38,000 requests, the actual number of passes requested was 328,045, meaning many people requested multiple passes.

Entrants chose travel dates — Sept. 26, Sept. 27 or both — and then entered up to three preferred outlying Regional Rail stations and picked travel times from those stations.

FAQs: Buying Your Pope Pass

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority will randomly email winners on Thursday. The agency planned to release 175,000 tickets for each day.

The winners will have will have three days to purchase up to 10 one-day tickets at $10 a piece. If they miss the deadline, another winner will be selected.

SEPTA's first attempt at selling the special Papal passes came to a screeching halt last month when the website crashed almost as soon as the passes went on sale.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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