2008 Woodie Awards
Holiday travel tips for students
John Saiz
Issue date: 11/22/02 Section: News
As the holiday season rapidly approaches, the images of Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas morning and New Year's Eve hold steadfast in our minds.
During these times, people spend the holidays with those whom they love. If their loved ones live in a city outside the Yuba-Sutter area, the images of holiday travel also run through people's minds. Embedded in those images are masses of others traveling to visit their loved ones as well.
Anticipating the rush that accompanies holiday travel, prepared travelers should be thinking of how they can help their trip run smoothly among the multitude of people taking to the road, rails and air.
For this reason, "The Prospector" gathered information from Greyhound, Amtrak, and Southwest Airlines to aid college travelers in their journeys home for the holidays.
Greyhound Lines is a bus service that has destinations throughout the country. Over 800,000 people chose to travel with Greyhound last year, according to spokesperson Kim Plaskett.
"It's difficult to get a projection, because most of our passengers buy their tickets two hours ahead of their travel time," said Plaskett.
"We have projected that we will meet or exceed 800,000 passengers between November 22 and December 2," continued Plaskett. "That was the amount of passengers we had during the Thanksgiving time period last year."
Amtrak is a rail service that travels to most of the continental United States. In 2001, Amtrak served more than 23.5 million passengers, an all-time high for the 31-year old rail company.
Spokesperson Sarah Swain answered questions about what Amtrak expects this holiday season.
"Thanksgiving is our busiest time of year," commented Swain. "Last year during the Thanksgiving period, we had about 500,000 passengers. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we had 110,000 passengers, up from about 58,000 passengers on the other Wednesdays in November."
"To help accommodate the Thanksgiving rush," added Swain, "Amtrak is adding 50,000 seats nationwide."
During these times, people spend the holidays with those whom they love. If their loved ones live in a city outside the Yuba-Sutter area, the images of holiday travel also run through people's minds. Embedded in those images are masses of others traveling to visit their loved ones as well.
Anticipating the rush that accompanies holiday travel, prepared travelers should be thinking of how they can help their trip run smoothly among the multitude of people taking to the road, rails and air.
For this reason, "The Prospector" gathered information from Greyhound, Amtrak, and Southwest Airlines to aid college travelers in their journeys home for the holidays.
Greyhound Lines is a bus service that has destinations throughout the country. Over 800,000 people chose to travel with Greyhound last year, according to spokesperson Kim Plaskett.
"It's difficult to get a projection, because most of our passengers buy their tickets two hours ahead of their travel time," said Plaskett.
"We have projected that we will meet or exceed 800,000 passengers between November 22 and December 2," continued Plaskett. "That was the amount of passengers we had during the Thanksgiving time period last year."
Amtrak is a rail service that travels to most of the continental United States. In 2001, Amtrak served more than 23.5 million passengers, an all-time high for the 31-year old rail company.
Spokesperson Sarah Swain answered questions about what Amtrak expects this holiday season.
"Thanksgiving is our busiest time of year," commented Swain. "Last year during the Thanksgiving period, we had about 500,000 passengers. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we had 110,000 passengers, up from about 58,000 passengers on the other Wednesdays in November."
"To help accommodate the Thanksgiving rush," added Swain, "Amtrak is adding 50,000 seats nationwide."