HARTFORD, Conn. — Whether travelers are riding the rails, hitting the road or taking to the skies, the day before Thanksgiving can be busy.
“Thanksgiving is Amtrak’s biggest week of the year, it's basically like our Super Bowl,” explained Jason Abrams, senior public relations manager for Amtrak.
In 2023, Amtrak carried more than a million passengers across the country during the Thanksgiving travel period and they expect to see even more this year.
To accommodate, they’ve added cars to some northeast-regional trains and increased trip frequencies on the northeast corridor, but trains aren’t the only reason travelers showed up to Hartford Union Station on Wednesday.
Wesleyan University students Sylvie Pingeon and Vienna Rist are heading to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving with family.
“My mom told us we should order our Uber here last night ahead of time and I told her I don’t think that’s necessary and it wasn't,” Pingeon said.
“Oh, super chill. We got here really early,” Rist added. “It’s been good.”
It was a similar experience for passengers at Bradley International Airport, too.
“It’s been pretty painless,” said D.C. local Isabella Antonetti.
Antonetti flew into Windsor Locks Wednesday afternoon for her family’s Thanksgiving.
“I wanted to spend as much time with my family as I could, so I decided to come up a day early,” she said. “It’s not been as bad as I thought, actually. The lines were long, but they moved quickly, so I was glad for that.”
Airport officials said Wednesday morning was the busiest period, with about 25 flights departing in the span of just a few hours.
“Typically the day before Thanksgiving and even a couple days before, is when we see a lot of people,” said Bradley spokesperson Brian Spyros. “All year has really been very busy for us, like the rest of the country. During the Thanksgiving travel period last year, we saw 95,000 departing passengers. When you take a look at those departures for this year, that’s actually almost a 5% increase over last year.”
The Thanksgiving rush continues with both airports and train stations expecting to see crowds over the weekend as people, like Antonetti, return home.
“I just decided to get here early just cause I get a little bit nervous about it myself,” she continued. “I think I’ll probably get here early on Saturday, too.”
Emma Wulfhorst is a political reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at ewulfhorst@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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