How to get around on New Year’s Eve
SEPTA is working to make sure its riders are safe — particularly by preventing assaults of students who use the system, according to SEPTA Police Chief Thomas Nestel.(NewsWorks file photo)
SEPTA, PATCO and ride-hailing companies are all stepping up service to ferry revelers in and out of Philadelphia until the wee hours of New Year’s Day.
Here’s what you need to know.
Rails
SEPTA is extending its regional rail hours through the turn of the New Year, with final trains scheduled to depart from Philadelphia between 1:20 and 2:05a.m.
The Trenton line also will connect to NJ Transit, serving riders to and from New York City through the early morning, according to spokesman Andrew Busch.
Ticket kiosks at 30th Street, Suburban and Jefferson stations will stay open until 2 a.m. “to make sure we accommodate customers who are coming through,” he said.
For riders heading across the Delaware River, PATCO is providing free service from 8 p.m. Saturday through 4 a.m. Sunday.
Metro
SEPTA’s Market-Frankford and Broad Street lines will offer normal weekend night service, running past midnight and switching to buses during the first midnight hour of 2017.
Roads
New Years Eve tends to be one of the deadliest for drunken-driving related fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Billing themselves as a safer alternative are taxis and ride-hailing services.
Demand will be highest between midnight and 3 a.m., according to Uber’s website. Lyft lists 10 p.m. as another time when ride requests surge, as partiers set off for their midnight destinations.
Expect to pay dearly if you want a ride during those time, said New Jersey-based Uber driver Leon Bolden.
“Last year, it was a very good night for Uber drivers, as in financially,” he said. At most, rates were nine times normal fares, according to Bolden, although he said with more people driving this year, costs should be lower. “It’s kind of a roll of the dice, but maybe three or four times the rate.”
To try to game its competition, Uber is incentivizing its service by enrolling riders after midnight Saturday into a $10,000 lottery drawing.
Looking to New Yera’s Day, Philadelphians can expect road closures in Center City to accommodate the Mummers Parade.
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