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New PATCO Schedule Begins Sunday, July 5, 2015 for Upcoming Continuous Track Outage

LINDENWOLD, N.J. - Beginning Sunday, July 5, PATCO will operate on a new schedule to accommodate work on the PATCO tracks on the north side of the Ben Franklin Bridge. During the north-track outage, which is projected to last two months, PATCO trains traveling both eastbound and westbound will share the single set of tracks on the south side of the bridge, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

“This phase of the construction has been timed to take place during the summer, when ridership is lower, with many people on vacation and schools not in session,” said PATCO General Manager John Rink. “Because work will take place 24/7 between July 5 and Labor Day, we expect the project to be completed four months ahead of schedule — by the end of December 2015 instead of April 2016.”

PATCO has been running single-track service, using the north track, on Thursdays and Fridays since February of this year. The single-track service schedule taking effect July 5, using the south track, will have fewer and shorter service gaps than the current Thursday-Friday schedule. “This schedule will be similar to the one we ran August through October last year,” Rink said. “Although there are some gaps, we’re making every effort to make sure our customers can get around safely and conveniently.”

During the morning rush hour, Monday through Friday, westbound service to Philadelphia will feature only three gaps in service, with shorter gaps compared to the current Thursday-Friday single-track schedule. Three trains will originate at Haddonfield Station (at 7:18am, 7:56am and 8:49am), and one additional train will originate at Lindenwold. There will be continuous westbound service, with trains departing from Lindenwold every few minutes between 7:52am and 8:29am.

For the eastbound morning rush, two more trains will be running than in the current Thursday-Friday single-track schedule. The total number of service gaps has been reduced and the average gap time has been reduced by approximately 15 minutes.

Improvements have also been made to the schedule for eastbound service to Lindenwold during the evening rush hour, Monday through Friday, compared with the current Thursday-Friday single track schedule. The new schedule adds five trains to the schedule between 4pm and 7pm and reduces the average gap time by approximately 8 minutes. Nine trains (up from seven in the current single-track schedule) will depart from the 16th and Locust station between 5:00pm and 5:45pm. There will be no break in service, compared to the 26-minute gap between 5:04pm and 5:30pm in the current Thursday-Friday schedule. In addition, four eastbound trains will originate at the 8th and Market Station (at 4:09pm, 4:40pm, 5:13pm and 6:07pm) for the eastbound evening rush.

There are no significant improvements in westbound service during the evening rush hour, Monday through Friday.

There have also been improvements in the scheduling of off-peak service in both directions, Monday through Friday, compared with the current Thursday-Friday single-track schedule. Between 9:00am and 4:15pm, trains will run every 15 minutes (down from 26 minutes in the current single-track schedule). Between 6:19pm and 9:30pm, trains will run every 15 minutes (down from 26 minutes), and between 9:30 pm and 11:30 pm every 20 minutes (down from 26 minutes).

There will be no changes to the current single-track weekend schedule.

PATCO staff will be in stations to distribute timetables and answer questions on Tuesday afternoon, June 30, and Wednesday morning and afternoon, July 1. The new timetables will be placed in station timetable racks on Sunday morning before the new schedule takes effect on Sunday, July 5.

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.

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