SEPTA postpones sales of papal rail passes

SEPTA officials are still trying to work out the best way to sell regional rail tickets for the weekend Pope Francis will be in Philadelphia. 

 

 

The $10 passes will not go on sale this week while the transit authority addresses problems that crashed its website Monday, said Andrew Busch, spokesman.

“We’re still working through some of the technical issues that came up, and, while we are doing that,  we want people to know that we have not set a date for when the passes go back on sale,” he said Tuesday.

EPTA is working with consultants to review options for selling the passes to the thousands of suburban residents who want to get a glimpse of the pope and attend the Mass he will celebrate Sept. 27 on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Those consultants will help SEPTA “try to improve the e-commerce site, to enhance its ability to handle customers that will come in,” Busch said. “We’re also considering working with an outside vendor to sell the passes for us.”

The site crashed shortly after opening because of the volume of people wanting to buy the train tickets.

Busch said 54,000 customers visited the site in the first minute after it was launched — so officials know that the 175,000 passes for each day of the papal weekend will go quickly.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.