Holiday travelers hit the rails for Thanksgiving gatherings near and far

Thanksgiving is the busiest travel period of the year, and Amtrak is doing its part to accommodate the expected surge of travelers on trains and at stations.

Lacey’s Centennial Station was bustling on Tuesday as travelers boarded sold-out trains running up and down the Interstate 5 corridor.

In 2023, Amtrak carried more than a million customers on trains around the country during the Thanksgiving travel period, Nov. 18 through Nov. 26. That was up 16% from the same period in 2022 — and up a whopping 97% from 2019, the year before the COVID pandemic.

Of those million train travelers in 2023, more than 23,000 passed through Seattle’s King Street Station during that period — an 18% increase from Thanksgiving 2022.

This year, because Amtrak has added two daily roundtrips between Portland and Seattle since Thanksgiving 2023, Amtrak expects to carry even more customers to 2024 celebrations.

If you’re hoping to be one of them and you haven’t already booked your travel, you might be out of luck. Many trains are already sold out, so buy tickets in advance and be flexible about when you travel.

The busiest travel days will be the Sunday after Thanksgiving; there were more than 132,000 riders that day in 2023. Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 26-27, are the other busiest days.

This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Holiday travelers hit the rails for Thanksgiving gatherings near and far."