Pope Service on ACL and NEC (with Connecting Pope Service)

jackintosh11 wrote:Why are they using ALP-45s on the AC line?

I wonder if they put up the pantographs when they got under a wire, to get into 30th Street?

They don't do that usually and the line normally runs with regular diesels

Looks like the pedestrian traffic over the bridge was a trickle:

Any ridership stats on the Atlantic City Line today?

jackintosh11 wrote:They don't do that usually and the line normally runs with regular diesels

They do, as a matter of fact, change into E-Mode when they are laying over in 30th Street.

Was disappointing to hear that NJT terminated at trenton per usual with no amtrak borrowing equipment. The whole weekend was a wash for any "pope train" photos. Service did terminate for SEPTA at levittown, but it looks as if that station were barely even used, as my friends and I scouted around for good photo spots. Traffic was super light sunday. I suppose I'll have to wait till thanksgiving to get any extra/borrowed moves..

TrainPhotos wrote:Was disappointing to hear that NJT terminated at trenton per usual with no amtrak borrowing equipment. The whole weekend was a wash for any "pope train" photos. Service did terminate for SEPTA at levittown, but it looks as if that station were barely even used, as my friends and I scouted around for good photo spots. Traffic was super light sunday. I suppose I'll have to wait till thanksgiving to get any extra/borrowed moves..

Forget photos, it was an absolute customer service failure.

The three agencies managed to scare enough people away that they successfully avoided their job to act as transportation services.

Its easier to run a railroad without passengers. SEPTA, NJTransit and Amtrak managed to accomplish that beautifully.

TrainPhotos wrote:Was disappointing to hear that NJT terminated at trenton per usual with no amtrak borrowing equipment. The whole weekend was a wash for any "pope train" photos. Service did terminate for SEPTA at levittown, but it looks as if that station were barely even used, as my friends and I scouted around for good photo spots. Traffic was super light sunday. I suppose I'll have to wait till thanksgiving to get any extra/borrowed moves..

NJ Transit made five trainsets available to Amtrak for lease on Saturday and Sunday for New York to Philadelphia service. Amtrak took four of them and put the service in their Pope timetable. When nobody reserved seats on the Pope Extras, Amtrak cancelled the lease.
Blame the Secret Service for the transportation FAIL. They wanted everybody to be screened, so they limited transit access.
Aside from the transit fail, several thousand people who were already in Philadelphia missed the mass on the Parkway because they were in line for five hours trying to get through security, and the mass ended before they got through.
Washington thinks they did a good job. The Pope didn't get assassinated and only half the expected turnout actually showed up.
Back to transit, the draconian limits on ACL and PATCO service kept me at home. It was a fiasco.

jamesinclair wrote: Forget photos, it was an absolute customer service failure.

The three agencies managed to scare enough people away that they successfully avoided their job to act as transportation services.

Its easier to run a railroad without passengers. SEPTA, NJTransit and Amtrak managed to accomplish that beautifully.

Oh come on, the SS, Nutter and WMF blew this. Nail in coffin was requiring tickets for Sunday mass. Septa, NJT or Patco didn't experience anywhere near a meltdown. You can't transport bodies that aren't there.

VERY weird seeing these trains roll by the stations without stopping. Last time I saw this was in 2005 or 2006 during a blizzard when they kept them rolling to keep tracks clear.

RL was stopping only at the park-and-rides: Florence, Burlington South and Pennsauken, en route to Camden waterfront and BF Bridge-- over which people walked (about 5 miles to LOVE park) to see His Holiness.

Also they were running mostly two-car consists going down in the morning, two-car consists coming back at afternoon & evening. Don't know how they got them all shifted at either end! Trains ran at 15-minute intervals all day (unlike as usual, only during rush hour).

No signs at stations providing information. Somewhat funny seeing non-Catholics asking about why they train wasn't stopping-- being local I tended to get these questions a lot!