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Both PATCO Tracks Back in Service Across Ben Franklin Bridge

New Schedule Begins on Wednesday
Rush-hour Traffic Lanes Reopen

CAMDEN, N.J. - Beginning at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, October 22nd , normal PATCO weekday service will resume with no scheduled track outages. However, on Saturdays and Sundays, a weekend single track work schedule will be in place with trains running at 30 minute intervals.

Beginning on December 4th,  a single track work schedule will be in effect from Thursdays until early Mondays. Three of the week’s ten rush hour periods will be affected: the afternoon rush hour on Thursdays and both morning and afternoon rush hours on Fridays. Although the majority of the track rehabilitation has been completed, additional work is needed on supporting signal, power and communication systems.  This work will continue on extended weekends until early 2016.

On the Ben Franklin Bridge, four westbound lanes to Pennsylvania will again be open during morning rush hours.  Four eastbound lanes to New Jersey will be available for the afternoon rush hours.  Weekend lane closures will be made as needed and scheduled closures will be posted on www.drpa.org.

The customer feedback that CEO John T. Hanson has received has been enlightening and useful.  “Our transit riders, motorists and bridge neighbors have been incredibly patient and understanding during the last few months.” 

The PATCO Rail Rehabilitation Project over the Ben Franklin Bridge is a two-year, $103 million project that involves replacing the entire PATCO track system across the bridge, including all related signal, power and communications cables that are part of the system. Work on this project is expected to be completed in early 2016.

“The upcoming December weekend schedule, lane closures and work noise will continue to inconvenience our neighbors and customers.  We’re very sorry for that.  But we hope that when this project is finally completed, we can agree that the end result was worth it, ” says Hanson.

Streets that have been closed during the project will reopen.  In Camden, North Third Street reopens on Tuesday night.  In Philadelphia, North Marginal (New Street) will reopen by noon on Wednesday the 22nd.

Printed copies of the timetable will be available at PATCO stations beginning on Wednesday. 

Click here to view the schedule.

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