SEPTA suspends sales of pope visit passes
PHILADELPHIA -- SEPTA announced that it is suspending online sales of Regional Rail passes for the pope's visit in September until technical problems can be fixed.
In a tweet, SEPTA said the site is "temporarily closed while (we)resolve problems"
An unexpectedly high volume of traffic is being blamed for issues customers experienced.
SEPTA officials said that they brought in outside contractors to help with the process, and their site was tested for 1,700 hits per second.
They believe the site was receiving three times that amount of traffic on Monday morning after tickets went on sale at 9 a.m.
Despite the problems, some tickets were sold on Monday morning, though SEPTA is still tabulating how many were sold. SEPTA confirms that most transactions were not completed.
The officials said they would announce their plan for resuming ticket sales on Tuesday, but that doesn't necessarily mean ticket sales would resume then. It could happen at a later date.
SEPTA is selling a total of 350,000 passes for the weekend - 175,000 on Saturday, September 26 and Sunday, September 27. The passes are $10.
Users began reporting problems shortly after the passes were to go on sale.
Like many of those would-be riders, producers inside the our sister station WPVI's newsroom were also seeing "Page Not Available" errors on the site set up to buy the passes before sales were suspended.
Meanwhile, Special Freedom cards are available at PATCO's Broadway station and online. Passengers who do not have them will not be permitted on the trains on Sept. 26 and 27.
A one-day pass will cost $5 and a two-day pass is $10 for those 5 years of age and older. There is a limit of 10 cards per purchase.
Passengers may use their regular Freedom cards during the pope's visit and pay $2.50 for each ride.
The deadline for PATCO's online purchases is Sept 1.
To purchase PATCO tickets, visit:
