New York Times
November 24, 2005
A Busy Travel Day Loses Its No. 1 Spot
By SEWELL CHAN
The anxiety-filled rituals of Thanksgiving eve - driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic, waiting for hours at an airport lounge, boarding a train with no empty seats - seemed to ease slightly this year, so much so that aviation and highway experts predicted that the day before Thanksgiving might be ceding its claim as the busiest travel day of the year.
During Thanksgiving week, "Wednesday has always been the busiest day, but this year it was Tuesday," said Felicia Browder, a spokeswoman for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the busiest in the country. The airport expects Sunday to be its busiest day this year.
But while many airports, train stations and highway authorities reported few problems, there were at least two significant exceptions.
At least 16 people were injured in Elmwood Park, Ill, about 14 miles northwest of Chicago, when commuter train struck five vehicles and set off a chain reaction that damaged about 12 others. The train, which left Chicago's Union Station at 4:25 p.m., was carrying 400 to 500 passengers when it struck the cars at a grade crossing at Grand Avenue, said Judy Pardonnet of Metra, the Chicago train system. Three people in cars suffered critical injuries, and at least three people on the train were also injured.
The cause of the accident was not known last night, Ms. Pardonnet said.
And on Interstate 95 in the Maryland suburbs north of Washington, a tanker truck carrying about 8,500 gallons of gasoline exploded around 4:30 a.m. and burned for nearly three hours, forcing hundreds of drivers to abandon their cars.
The explosion snarled traffic for about eight hours along the heavily traveled I-95 corridor north of the Capital Beltway as firefighters struggled to control the fire and as workers repaired the damage. No one was injured, but the fire spread to the median and into nearby woods and melted a large section of the road. It took about 66 tons of asphalt to replace a strip of the Interstate 125 feet long and 36 feet wide. All lanes were reopened by 1:30 p.m.
In New York City, there were huge lines at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, the largest bus station in the country. Hundreds of people lining up to buy or pick up intercity bus tickets from Greyhound or Peter Pan spilled out into the lobby, while an overflow area held hundreds more who were waiting for buses that were backed up in traffic. Similar lines and delays were reported for New Jersey Transit and other commuter buses.
Elsewhere, the preholiday travel rush was calmer. At O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, snow and winds delayed flights until early afternoon. But when Lora Davies, of Roselle, Ill., arrived four hours before the scheduled 6 p.m. departure of her flight to Germany, she marveled at the lack of crowds. "This is nothing," Ms. Davies said. "I would have come later if I knew it was this smooth. People are getting here earlier than they should and leaving themselves plenty of time."
Wendy Abrams, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation, said 217,000 passengers were expected to fly out of O'Hare today, slightly fewer than last Thanksgiving. Except for a few flights delayed by strong winds on the East Coast, Ms. Abrams said, "everything else has been running like clockwork."
Some meteorologists warned of possible snowstorms over the Great Lakes beginning last night, which could snarl travel plans for many in the Midwest.
From Nov. 19 to 29, 21.7 million people are expected to fly this year, a tiny increase from last year, according to the Air Transport Association, the trade group for the country's airlines. This Sunday is likely to be the busiest travel day of the year, with 2.4 million people projected to fly.
AAA predicted that 37.3 million Americans would travel 50 miles or more from their home for Thanksgiving, by any mode of transportation, an increase of only 0.8 percent from last year, because of reduced consumer confidence and high fuel prices. The estimate was based on a phone survey of 1,383 adults.
The Automobile Club of New York, an affiliate of AAA, estimated that the number of Northeast residents traveling by automobile would slip 4.3 percent from last year. Smaller declines were also projected for the Great Lakes and Midwest regions.
Around New York City, there were sporadic delays on major crossings like the George Washington Bridge and a shortage of spaces in the parking lots at the three major airports.
"We've seen the Thanksgiving holiday period become more of a weeklong event," said Robert G. Glantzberg, operations director at Transcom, a consortium of government agencies that monitors traffic in the New York area. "Where there used to be a mad rush on Wednesday, now it's more steady and drawn out over several days. People have been burnt too many times."
John Files contributed reporting from Washington for this article, Brenda Goodman from Atlanta and Gretchen Ruethling from Chicago.
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