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In anticipation of the busiest travel period of the year during the coming Thanksgiving week, Amtrak will increase its capacity in the Notheast by 40,000 seats and operate 70 extra trains, including 31 additional Acela Express trains, between Washington, D.C.., New York City, and Boston.
Under its special Northeast Thanksgiving timetable, which will be in effect from Tuesday, Nov. 25 through Monday Dec. 1, Amtrak will also add passenger capacity by putting into service every available passenger car; increase the frequency of regional and Metroliner trains, and leasing extra cars from commuter agencies.
During Thanksgiving week, Amtrak expects to serve more than 300,000 passengers in the Northeast alone and, on the busiest travel day of the year (Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving), Amtrak will carry as many as 110,000 passengers nationwide-about 70% more than a typical Wednesday.
Amtrak's plan for increased Thanksgiving capacity comes on the heels of a very strong October for the carrier, in which ridership was up 11 percent against October 2002. This year's Thanksgiving timetable will feature approximately 40 more departures from Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. than last Thanksgiving.
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It's time to close these useless railroads. The trains have no meaningful place in the American transit grid. Nobody needs trains anymore. Nobody wants trains anymore. Just look at the facts. Who rides them? It's time for these trains to go. They are no more tham an anachronism. Amtrak is a burden laid upon the shoulders of a disintrested American taxpayer who neither needs nor wants the these costly relics from an earlier time. Amtrak must die. The highways and the airlines will fill in the microscopic gap left by the absence of the trains. Don't cry for the trains. They're already just about gone.
(Yeah. Right!)
[This message has been edited by dnsommer (edited 11-20-2003).]
Posts: 284 | From: Ithaca, NY USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by RRRICH: Obviously Dave S is being sarcastic, but I understand his point about the perception of many people about AMTRAK and trains.
Over Thanksgiving, every one of those extra 40,000 seats will be filled -- and many passengers will still have to stand.
The Northeast is the one region of the country where the population really DOES support rail travel (Amtrak, commuter, rapid transit) on a massive level.
Up here, trains aren't simply for vacations or occasional trips to see the in-laws. For millions of people, riding the rails is simply something you do every day, almost without thinking -- kind of like brushing your teeth.
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