By Stan Stelter
Bismarck, ND – Amtrak has seen a huge increase in customers in the past week.
This is Amtrak spokesperson Karina Van Veen:
"We've seen a 40-percent growth in our sales over the past week, not only along the northeast corridor, which is usual, but on our long distance trains. Normally this time of year we see a bit of a drop-off on long distance trains because vacations are over or the kids are back in school, that sort of thing but last week our long distance trains were sold out, most of them. Lots of Americans trying to travel from the West Coast to the East Coast and vise-versa."
Van Veen says Amtrak has made changes in its rail operations including with security:
"The biggest change we saw is that we added equipment to existing trains to accommodate more guests. In addition we know everyone is concerned with security at this point, we have upgraded our security measures, we have an increased police presence on board our trains and in our stations. We're also doing security inspections and patrols around bridges and tunnels, just to make sure the right-of-way is safe."