Intro to Philly Week

It's that time of year again. New Jersey Transit is offering free rides to university students next week (Feb 4 - Feb 10). In preparation for this, I will make a series of blog posts about many things to see and do, from a railfan's perspective, taking advantage of New Jersey Transit's offer. I have entitled this week "Philly Week" after one of the many things that some up here in New York do to take advantage: Ride from New York to Philadelphia for free. Sure, the days are not as long as they are in September, which is the other time of year that NJT does this, but that doesn't mean you still can't take advantage of free rides into and through the Garden State.

Some of the things I have done in the past include complete exploration of the close-to-home light rail systems, the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and the Newark City Subway. The more extravagant, of course, is traveling from the Big Apple to the City of Brotherly Love without spending a dime. Take that, Greyhound!

To travel to Philadelphia, you must travel to Trenton. There, you have two options, one of which costing significantly more. The costlier option is taking the SEPTA R7 line, which connects with New Jersey Transit trains in an across-the-platform transfer which makes that a bit more convenient, but like I said, it'll cost you. Buying your ticket on the train (the only sane way to do it if you ride free to Trenton) will set you back $9. If you're fortunate enough to buy a ticket in advance, you save *drumroll* one dollar. However, if you exit the station and go across the street, you'll find an option that'll make you spend those nine bucks on something you'll enjoy more…like a philly cheese steak.

The RiverLINE is South Jersey's light rail system, connecting Trenton with Camden, which is to Philadelphia like Jersey City is to New York…except there's bridges connecting the two cities down there, and tunnels up here. Take the RiverLINE to Walter Rand Transportation Center. (Yeah. I don't know who he is, either, but they named the place after him anyway.) Right across from the RiverLINE station is, shock, an entrance to another transit agency's rail station. This time, it's PATCO, a high speed rail line that runs from Lindenwold all the way to Philadelphia. Fortunately, the fare for the ride to Philly on PATCO is significantly less than that of the R7, so you can spend the $1.15 here, and save the rest for a slightly smaller Philly cheese steak.

Then again, if that $9 you have has to last you the whole day, Walk across the street into the Walter Rand Transportation Center, and proceed to Gate Eight. Enough with the Rhyme Time. Just take any bus that pulls up to Gate Eight, where there's a 99.9% chance that it'll pull in and say that it's headed to Philadelphia. Show your "credentials" to the bus driver, take a seat, sit back, and relax as the bus takes you across the Ben Franklin Bridge into Center City Philadelphia. Who knows? You might even see a PATCO train or two.

There you go. How to get to Philadelphia without spending a dime.
1. Be a college student with a valid student ID card.
2. Board a New Jersey Transit train on the Northeast Corridor Line. Take it to Trenton
3. Take RiverLINE to Walter Rand Transportation Center.
4. Board any bus that stops at Gate 8
5. Welcome to Philadelphia! What you do there is none of my business!

Enjoy!