PHILADELPHIA >> Travelers from New Jersey had a surprisingly easy time Saturday morning commuting into Philadelphia for the Pope Francis visit.
Short lines to get bags checked awaited those who were boarding Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO) trains around 7:30 a.m., at the Woodcrest Station in New Jersey.
“I tried to get here early to avoid the crowds best we could and it looks like we did,” said Amy Fugate a visitor from Ohio who was staying at a Marlton hotel and traveling to see the pope.
“I was very surprised,” said Teresa Bello a native of Argentina, who lives in Michigan and was staying at the Timberlane Campground in Clarksboro, N.J. “We had a 15-minute drive to the station and I thought there would be long waits on (Interstate) 295 and there wasn’t anybody.”
She and her friend, Ceclia Krajewski, were hoping to catch a glimpse of the Pope at some point today, even though they didn’t have tickets to any of the events. Krajewski said they were planning on walking around the city to take it all in and then checking out the concert and papal speech happening on the parkway this evening.
“We’re going to try and get into the concert but we’re not sure how close we’ll get,” she said. “We’ll see what happens. It’s just exciting to be here.”
A self-proclaimed Pope fanatic, Cindy Rhodes of Evesham took PATCO in this morning to see Pope Francis. She has already seen Pope John Paul II and has traveled to Italy four times, also seeing Pope Benedict and this will be her second time seeing Pope Francis. She said what makes this more exciting is that he is on her home turf and not the other way around.
“He’s definitely a pope for the people,” she said.
