The sports gambling company FanDuel provided $80,000 to restore express train service for the Philadelphia Eagles season opener on Thursday, SEPTA confirmed with NBC10.
On Tuesday, Sept. 2, the Eagles issued a travel advisory for fans, informing them they would not be running their special sports express trains for Thursday’s matchup against the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field due to SEPTA’s ongoing service cuts.
The Eagles advised fans to only travel to the South Philadelphia Sports Complex if they had a ticket to the game and for those who were attending to arrive early and plan for extra travel time.
On Wednesday, Sept. 3, however, FanDuel announced they were providing resources to fully restore express train service on SEPTA’s Broad Street Line for the season opener.
“SEPTA will run regularly scheduled subway trains, plus Sports Express trips, before and after the game. Pre-game, Sports Express trips will run every 10 minutes to supplement Local service. Post-game, SEPTA will have 10 Express and six Local trains ready to get fans home from NRG Station. Post-game trips will operate over a period of approximately 70 minutes, and SEPTA urges fans to go to NRG station right after the game to ensure they can catch a train home,” a spokesperson wrote. “The FanDuel sponsorship covers free rides home for fans. The free rides from NRG Station begin at halftime and continue through the end of service.”
A SEPTA spokesperson confirmed with NBC10 that FanDuel paid $80,000 to restore the service for Thursday’s game only with $40,000 covering base operations and another $40,000 covering free rides home for Eagles fans.
The initial reduction of the sports express trains was part of SEPTA’s first round of cuts that were implemented on Sunday, Aug. 24, after lawmakers in Harrisburg failed to secure funding to address the transit agency’s $213 million budget deficit. The cuts also included the elimination or reduction of dozens of bus routes.
On Thursday, Aug. 28, the city of Philadelphia announced they were using a portion of its $135 million transit subsidy to restore some SEPTA bus routes for students impacted by the service cuts.
Then on Friday, Aug. 29, a judge ordered a temporary injunction to halt the next phase of service cuts that included a fare hike scheduled for Sept. 1 and Regional Rail reductions on Sept. 2. SEPTA complied with the ruling.
However, besides some bus routes being restored for students, SEPTA has maintained their first round of service cuts that were implemented on Aug. 24, which includes the reduction of express trains to sporting events.
In response to this, George Bochetto, the attorney who filed the initial lawsuit which led to the judge’s order, wrote a letter to SEPTA’s attorney, arguing that the express train service cuts should also be halted. Bochetto planned to address the express train service cuts during a follow-up hearing on the lawsuit on Thursday, Sept. 4.
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