Marylanders hit the roads, rails and skies during post-holiday rush
BALTIMORE -- Millions of people nationwide hit the road to visit loved ones during another record holiday travel season. The hectic rush to get back home began for many on Thursday, including here in Maryland.
AAA Mid-Atlantic estimates that 2.3 million Marylanders traveled to visit family and friends, most by car.
TSA estimates 40 million passengers will be screened through early January, which is a 6% increase from 2023. It caps off a record-setting year in the skies, with most of the top 10 travel days happening in 2024.
"I was kind of anticipating it being kind of crazy in here, but it's really not," said Jada Richardson who drove down from Pennsylvania to fly to Texas.
"It seems a little slow, but it's okay. It works in my favor," she added. "There really wasn't a lot of traffic on the highway coming from Pennsylvania or coming over here to the airport."
BWI Thurgood Marshall had a few delays Thursday evening. Weather in the northwest, south and midwest caused some travel headaches nationwide. Though, it was fairly quiet which surprised some travelers.
"It's been pretty smooth actually. No complaints. Not a lot of crowds like I was expecting," said Andrew King, who flew from New York to Maryland as he headed south to visit family. "Probably got to the airport too early. It's a bad habit but ingrained from long lines in the past."
Meanwhile, Amtrak trains in the northeast are back up and running after some service disruptions before the holidays.
"Just dropped off my daughter. She's heading from Baltimore back to New York," Vanessa told WJZ.
"Once again, it takes the stress out of having to drive. Traveling by train is very convenient," she said.
On the roads locally, there were some break lights in the typical spots.
Greg Robitaille was visiting the Baltimore area from Toronto and said he left early to avoid traffic.
"It was easy. We left early enough so there was no traffic," Robitaille said. "We left at 4 a.m. today, so there wasn't that much traffic until we got 10 minutes from here."
Whether it's by air, rail or road, travel experts anticipate a lot of people to be traveling between now and the end of the week.
