Back in the day railroads would promote travel on their passenger trains during the holiday travel seasons by creating elaborate advertisement with seasonal themes. It is a practice that Amtrak has all but abandoned. To celebrate Christmas Day we bring back a slice of the past in the form of this Pennsylvania Railroad advertisement. It also is a reminder of a time when train travel was as popular as air travel today.
Just in time for Christmas Amtrak is curtailing service in the Midwest in advance of a winter storm that will bring subzero temperatures and heavy snow in some places.
The cancellations affect corridor service from Chicago to Milwaukee, St. Louis and Detroit (Pontiac). Also affected is the route between St. Louis and Kansas City and the Chicago-Seattle/Portland Empire Builder.
The cancellations are in effect on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Cancelled are Wolverine Service Trains 352 and 353 between Chicago and Pontiac; Lincoln Service Trains 300, 301, 305 and 306 between Chicago and St. Louis; and Hiawatha Service Trains 329, 332, 333, 336, 337 and 340.
On the Missouri River Runner route trains will not operate on Saturday or Sunday between St. Louis and Kansas City, which means there will be no Amtrak service on those dates.
The Empire Builder will not depart Chicago or from the West Coast on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Amtrak announced this week that reservations will be required for travel on Keystone Service trains between Dec. 21 and Dc. 30.
This includes all trains operating between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Reservations will not be required for monthly and 10-ride ticket holders.
On Christmas Day, Keystone Service trains will operate on a Saturday schedule.
Holiday season air fares from Cleveland Hopkins Airport are expected to be lower but the number of non-stop destinations will be nearly half as many as there were last year.
A travel industry consultant told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland that the average air fare from Hopkins for the Thanksgiving travel season will be $148 roundtrip while the average fare during the Christmas travel season is projected to be $173 roundtrip.
Those figures do not include fees for such things as checked baggage.
Those projections are 45 percent lower than the average fare last year for Thanksgiving travel and 48 percent less than last year for Christmas season travel.
Nationwide, the average fares for Thanksgiving and Christmas travel are expected to be $172 and $222 roundtrip respectively, which are 41 percent and 40 percent lower than 2019 averages.
The consultant told the newspaper that fares are lower this year because airlines are trying to lure back passengers who stopped traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fares are unlikely to change much between now and the holiday travel seasons, the consultant said.
Based on schedules for November already posted by the eight carriers serving Hopkins, there will be 29 nonstop destinations next month compared with 42 in November 2019.
Among the missing destinations are Washington Reagan National, New York Kennedy, Milwaukee, West Palm Beach (Florida), Salt Lake City, Austin (Texas), and Charleston (South Carolina).
United Airlines plans to end service next month between Cleveland and San Francisco, but has announced it will add flights to the Florida cities of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and Orlando.
It will also launch service to Cancun in Mexico. JetBlue has also launched new service between Cleveland and Fort Myers to supplement its existing flights to Fort Lauderdale.
Hopkins had 4,018 commercial flights in November 2019 but expects to see 2.099 this November.
Seven of the eight airlines serving Cleveland have one or more suspended destinations that they served in November 2019.
A ninth carrier, an Air Canada partner carrier, has yet to resume service to Toronto.
The most recent figures available from the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics show Hopkins handled 315,149 passengers in August, a decline of 66 percent from August 2019. Nationwide, air travel was down 70 percent in August.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said it screened more than 1 million travelers on Oct. 18, the first time its daily screenings topped the million mark since last March.
However, those 1 million passengers screened was still 60 percent how many passed through security checkpoints nationwide on the same date a year ago.
Travelers riding Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian between New York and Pittsburgh and its Keystone Service trains between New York and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, will need reservations during the Christmas holiday travel period.
In a service advisory, Amtrak said Nos. 42 and 43 as well as all Keystone Service trains will be all reserved between Dec. 20 and 30.
Reservations, however, will not be required for monthly and 10-ride ticket holders.
On Christmas Day, Keystone Service trains will operate on a Saturday schedule.
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