Amtrak: Book Early For Thanksgiving Travel

An Amtrak train pulls into Winter Park, Fla., on Feb. 11, 2012. (Photo by Todd DeFeo / (c) 2012)

WASHINGTON – Amtrak, anticipating its busiest travel day of the year, is urging passengers to book their Thanksgiving holiday tickets early for best availability and pricing.

The busiest travel days that are likely to sell out are the Tuesday and Wednesday before and the Saturday and Sunday following Thanksgiving.

In time for this year’s Thanksgiving holiday, Amtrak will offer two new service expansions. Starting Nov. 1, the Downeaster will offer expanded rail service to Freeport and Brunswick, Maine. Tickets for this new service go on sale Oct. 1. In addition, tickets are now available for new Amtrak Thruway bus service in Eastern North Carolina that will provide rail connections for eight communities starting Oct. 3.

In preparation for the anticipated heavy holiday passenger volume, Amtrak will operate every available passenger rail car in its fleet and is scheduling extra trains to accommodate additional passengers in the Northeast, Midwest, and on the West Coast.

More than 724,000 passengers traveled on Amtrak trains for the Thanksgiving holiday in
2011, the most ever for the holiday.

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