SEPTA and the Temple-Notre Dame Game

The Temple Owl mascot leads the team onto the field during an October 10, 2015, game against Tulane at Lincoln Financial Field.

The eyes of Temple Owls fans everywhere, and of the nation, will be on Lincoln Financial Field this Saturday evening when nationally Top 25-ranked Temple — when did you ever think you’d see that phrase in an article about Temple football? — takes on perennial college football powerhouse Notre Dame in the heart of Owls territory.

We like Temple’s chances in the game, as, we suspect, does the entire Greater Philadelphia region. So does SBNation, by the way.

If you’re among the fortunate fans who have tickets to the sold-out game, or want to hang out with the ESPN “College Football GameDay” crew on Independence Mall in the morning, SEPTA is adding extra service to get you there quickly and with less hassle than sitting in traffic at the Pattison Avenue/Broad Street exit on I-95.

On Saturday morning, SEPTA will add four additional trips in each direction on the Market-Frankford Line, making all local stops. Even though streets in the vicinity of the ESPN set will be closed to vehicular traffic — more on that below — you will be able to access the site from 5th Street station, which will remain open. Fans taking Regional Rail should get off at Jefferson Station and transfer to the MFL eastbound at 11th Street.

On Saturday afternoon, starting at 5:05 p.m., SEPTA will add 14 southbound trips to its regular Saturday Broad Street Line schedule for fans headed to see undefeated AP Poll No. 21 (Coaches’ Poll No. 22) Temple take on Notre Dame (No. 9 on both polls) at 8 p.m. The trains will run as locals the entire length of the line to handle the hordes that will board at Cecil B. Moore; from there, average travel time to AT&T Station is 19 minutes. After the game, SEPTA will also add extra northbound local trips from AT&T Station.

Most, but not all, Regional Rail riders can also rest assured that SEPTA will get them to and from the game. “We will be coordinating schedules so that if we know there’s a BSL train coming in, we can hold trains at Suburban Station and Fern Rock,” said SEPTA spokesperson Manuel Smith, who added that extra supervisors will be stationed at City Hall and Fern Rock Transportation Center stations on the Broad Street Line to let personnel at Suburban and Fern Rock Transportation Center Regional Rail stations know how many riders are getting off the subway to catch trains and where they’re headed.

The only riders who will not be able to take SEPTA to and from the game are those living along the Wilmington/Newark Line or beyond Glenside on the Warminster Line; the last Wilmington/Newark train heads for Marcus Hook at 10:25 p.m. and the last Warminster train departs Suburban Station at 10:35 p.m., before the game ends. Chestnut Hill West passengers won’t be able to catch a train back where they came from either, as the last outbound train leaves Suburban at 10:10 p.m., but they may be able to use local bus routes or the Chestnut Hill East line, whose last outbound train leaves Suburban at 11:51 p.m. Riders headed past Malvern on the Paoli/Thorndale line may want to drive to Malvern and catch trains there in order to get back after the game.

Here are the last departures from Suburban Station for all other Regional Rail end points. Those lines that stop at Fern Rock have the times they stop there listed second:

Thorndale: 10:45 p.m.
Fox Chase: 10:46 p.m.
Media/Elwyn: 11:08 p.m.
Doylestown: 11:16 p.m.; 11:36 p.m.
Chestnut Hill East: 11:51 p.m.
Trenton: 11:57 p.m.
West Trenton: 12:05 a.m.; 12:25 a.m.
Malvern: 1:45 a.m.
Norristown: 1:48 a.m.

The Broad Street and Market-Frankford lines operate all night on weekends.

Now, about those street closures. Starting tomorrow (Thursday, October 29th) at 10 a.m., the 500 block of Market Street and three lanes of North Sixth Street from Arch to Market streets will be closed to vehicular traffic so that ESPN can set up its outdoor set for “Game Day Live.” The westernmost lane of Sixth Street will remain open to traffic. SEPTA bus routes 17, 33, 44 and 48, which operate on Market Street, will be detoured off the street between 5th and 8th streets.

Follow Sandy Smith on Twitter.