Amtrak prepares for heavy Thanksgiving travel

[Guest_Fan_Trains]

from Trains.com:

WAshington, D.C. - Amtrak expects to baord nearly 600.000 passengers nationwide during thanksgiving week, the railroad announced. Ridership on wednesday November is predicted to be 80 percent higher - 125, 000 pasengers - versus a typical Wednesday making it the busiest Amtrak travel day of the year.

here is the link:

http://www.trains.com/content/dynamic/arti...05/569guilc.asp?

 

[cbender]

Good grief! I'm booked NYP to ALX on the Carolinian Thursday morning. Hopefully that will be bit early for most people and so won't be packed.

 

[tp49]

I believe the worst of the load will be on Wednesday and Sunday. I remember a couple of years ago getting on a Capitol in SAC on the day before thanksgiving and having the train leave there SRO and become uncomfortably packed by the time it reached Davis.

 

[saxman]

Yeah i rode on Wed. from Grand Forks to Minneapolis. The GFK station was packed, and it takes them 10 or 15 minutes to just get everyone on!

This year I'm going from Fort Worth to Austin on Wed. which also happens to be my birthday. Bet that'll be even more packed, as thats a pretty high volume market.

Chris

 

[Amtrak OBS Employee]

Good grief! I'm booked NYP to ALX on the Carolinian Thursday morning. Hopefully that will be bit early for most people and so won't be packed.

Not necessarily out of NYP, but don't be surprised if it is overcrowded later down the line for a while. That train arrives into the RGH area of the Carolinas at a decent daylight time! A lot of folks do their Thanksgiving at the supper hour, and you will be on the train during the heaviest portion, too. But at least you will be getting off the train pretty quickly since after WAS comes ALX in the next few minutes. I would say for the most part it won't be too bad being it is the day of the holiday. But it'll probably start getting full by the time the train reaches PHL-BAL areas, mainly with those such as yourself we call "short hauls!" Hope you have a good trip, and the rush going home shouldn't be too bad after Monday.