Sydneysiders Expect Crowds of Up to Half a Million for Pope

Sydneysiders Expect Crowds of Up to Half a Million for Pope Related Articles - Anti-Annoyance Laws to Be Challenged: Civil Libertarians - Sydney Braces for Biggest Ever Disruption - Sydney Plans Nautical Welcome for Pope Benedict SYDNEY—Sydneysiders are being warned to prepare for long public transport queues and travel disruptions during next week's World Youth Day (WYD). Crowds of up to 500,000 people are expected in central Sydney next Thursday when Pope Benedict XVI is officially welcomed to the city. The pontiff arrives in Sydney on Sunday, but is spending three days resting before taking part in the six-day Catholic event, which officially starts on July 15. "Next week, particularly on Super Thursday, we're going to see crowds of up to half a million people in the CBD," government spokeswoman for WYD Kristina Keneally told reporters today. "Super Thursday will be the best opportunity for the people of Sydney to come into the city and see the Pope up close ... but we do need to be prepared for queues and for crowds of people. "We are going to have significant numbers of people on our public transport system." Four thousand additional city rail services have been added to Sydney's train network from today to cope with more than 100,000 international pilgrims and other WYD attendees from outside the city. To ease some of the congestion, registered pilgrims will have free access to the CityRail network through their WYD pass. Three hundred road closures and 500 clearways will be in place as part of the event. Ms Keneally urged people to use public transport, with extra peak services running each day to cater for both city workers and pilgrims accessing events. "All of the World Youth Day events are designed so that workers are not, as much as possible, competing with pilgrims," she said. But a media release from Ms Keneally's office says next Thursday CBD workers should plan an early mark or work from home to avoid delays. Marine safety exclusion zones will be in place on Sydney Harbour from Monday to accommodate the Pope's 13 boat "boat-a-cade" and 30 support vessels. Private vessels will need to keep 200 metres clear of any official WYD craft. WYD coordination authority CEO Roy Wakelin-King said he was "quietly confident" everything was in place for the event. "We've put a lot of planning into contingencies and we've done a number of, what we call, desk-top exercises to ensure that we can communicate and act appropriately should there be an incident," he said. He said organisers expected between 110,000 and 120,000 international pilgrims and the biggest crowds ever seen in Sydney at the final mass at Randwick.