(The following story by Danielle Gordon appeared on the Kalamazoo Gazette website on November 21.)
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Spurred by a surge in Thanksgiving ridership, Amtrak is urging Kalamazoo-area passengers to buy their tickets in advance for the busiest travel weekend of the year.
Some of the trains between Kalamazoo and Chicago are already sold out for Thanksgiving weekend while others have only a handful of seats left, Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel said.
“It is likely that all of the trains will be sold out by Wednesday,” Stessel said.
To accommodate the busy weekend, an additional 60,000 seats will be made available nationwide between Nov. 25 and Dec. 1, although it hasn’t been decided which trains will receive the additional capacity, Stessel said.
Once 80 percent of seats are reserved on a train, a car will be added if possible, he said.
Although passengers have stood on the train in the past because no seats were available, Amtrak does everything it can to ensure everyone has a seat and only sells as many tickets as there are seats, Stessel said.
An expected 540,000 people nationwide will ride an Amtrak train next week, with as many as 110,000 of them traveling on Wednesday. The day before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year.
Nationwide, ridership Wednesday is expected to be 70 percent higher than a typical Wednesday. Amtrak’s Kalamazoo station at 459 N. Burdick is expecting an increase to about 300 passengers from the average daily load of 180.
The increased number of riders Thanksgiving weekend also is increasing the price of a ticket. The fares increase as the train fills up, Stessel said.
“The farther in advance you book, the better chance you have of getting a lower fare,” he said.
One-way fares for the Kalamazoo-to-Chicago commute range from $17 to $44.