SEPTA: Expect Crowds on the Broad Street Line All Week

Even with 125 buses at the ready to shuttle delegates, SEPTA is warning riders things might get a little close below Broad Street this evening.

Expect crowded conditions on the Broad Street Line around this time every day during the convention. | Photo: Ben Schumin

Expect crowded conditions on the Broad Street Line around this time every day during the convention. | Photo: Ben Schumin

SEPTA is also part of the city’s mobilization effort to get the delegates and hangers-on for the 2016 Democratic National Convention where they’re going.

The agency has 125 buses stored at a parking lot within the convention’s security perimeter, ready to shuttle delegates from their Center City and airport hotels to the Wells Fargo Center.

But not everyone is eligible to ride the buses, which have been swept to clear Secret Service security requirements. For everyone else, there’s the Broad Street Line.

And that means that right about now, things might be getting a little stuffy underneath City Hall and Broad and Walnut.

SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said that in addition to the buses, SEPTA will run additional express trains on the Broad Street Line between 4 and 7 p.m. every day during the convention for media, delegates and other attendees who either cannot or choose not to use the shuttle buses.

And even those people might have some issues getting to the convention site right now. A service alert currently posted on the SEPTA website states that while Broad Street Line trains are running northbound from AT&T Station, southbound service from Oregon to AT&T has been suspended; a SEPTA spokesperson said the suspension is due to a security-related issue around the station. Philly.com reports that the partial shutdown of AT&T Station is due to a protest by about 1,000 Bernie Sanders supporters on the surface.

SEPTA recommends that visitors check the DNC page on its website for information relating to scheduled or unscheduled detours of bus routes and the System Status page for other service alerts, including rapid transit and Regional Rail service. Riders can get real-time text alerts on convention-related service interruptions or alterations by following @SEPTA_Bus and @SEPTA_BSL on Twitter.

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