LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) – Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season, which means more people will be out on the roads. However, Lancaster has different ways to get you to your final destination.
“We see a big increase at the airports and even some train travel,” Fritzi Schreffler with PennDOT said.
Many of us will take to the skies, but you may not think of Lancaster as your best option for air travel.
Executive director of the Lancaster Airport Authority Ed Foster says maybe you should.
“We have a travel calculator on it that’ll be helpful at any time,” Foster said.
That calculator at the airport’s website helps you figure out whether or not it makes sense to fly out of Lancaster, Harrisburg, or the major airports in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C.
It factors in things like parking and gas.
Foster believes the Lancaster airport has a lot of advantages for local travelers.
“Once they leave here and come back they are just gonna get in their car and go home. They don’t have to worry about a two-hour drive be it late at night or if the flight’s delayed,” Foster said.
If you’d rather stay earthbound, Amtrak is making it more and more tempting to leave your car at home and take a train to major east coast cities.
Just this week, the Biden administration announced $10 billion in federal funding to replace old tunnels, bridges, and tracks along the northeast corridor.
Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman said in a statement: “This federal funding is a significant investment in Pennsylvania’s transit infrastructure that will help deliver the high-quality transit system that Pennsylvanians deserve.”
And if you are one of the millions who will hit the roads this holiday, PennDOT is giving its annual reminders that planning ahead can save you a lot of time and frustration.
“Go onto 511pa.com and we have historic travel times for Thanksgiving which is letting people know what are the busiest times. So that maybe you can take a look and go maybe I don’t want to leave this time of day because there is going to be more traffic on the road,” Schreffler said.
More than three million drivers hit Pennsylvania roads last Thanksgiving.