New Jersey transportation officials to talk about visit World Meeting

More than 100,000 private vehicles, and perhaps as many as 250,000, are expected to travel from and through New Jersey on the way to Philadelphia for the Papal visit on Saturday, September 26 and 27th, said transportation consultant Sam Schwartz at a press conference of New Jersey transportation held in Camden today.

Tickets will be on sale until they sell out, but no later than Friday, September 25. “Unfortunately, these safety and capacity limitations mean only a fraction of the anticipated passenger demand can be met”, NJ Transit Executive Director Ronnie Hakim said.

Plans for the RiverLink Ferry and the three water taxis owned and operated by the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation have not been finalized, but the DRWC says that it expects that it will operate that weekend. These are advance purchase tickets only. Buses will run for those needing to travel to any of the stations between Atlantic City and Philadelphia. “The only way to get into Philly that weekend by rail will be the Atlantic City Line express train or Amtrak”, Hakim said. Only the Trenton, Bordentown, Florence, Burlington South, Pennsauken Route 73, Pennsauken Transit Center and Walter Rand Transporation Center RiverLINE stops will be open. Likewise, the Access Link paratransit service will also stop running to Philadelphia when the Ben Franklin Bridge closes.

Trains will not go past the Walter Rand Transportation Center in downtown Camden due to expected crowded road conditions. Each zone will have a secondary perimeter extending a few blocks out in all directions where screening is not required but vehicles, including those parked on the street, are still banned. No special tickets will be needed.

To help regulate crowd numbers, NJ TRANSIT will be offering limited special service on its Atlantic City Rail Line and River Line for people headed to Philadelphia that weekend, the agency said.

The shop, which routinely would have four employees Saturday and two Sunday, is leaning toward not opening that weekend, but it would wait and see the details announced online Monday, he said Thursday.

The diocese is encouraging local Catholics to either attend the noon Mass or their standard weekly Mass at their own churches as viewing the Papal Mass on a television screen will not fulfill their Sunday obligation, the diocese said. Once the Ben Franklin Bridge closes to vehicular traffic, all Philadelphia bus routes will be truncated at the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden but will remain on schedule for trips outbound from the Camden area.

Road closures are also planned, but Route 95 will be open.

(Vatican Radio) The official logo of Pope Francis’s apostolic voyage to Cuba has been released.