“While retailers are reporting sales are up at stores and on the Internet, travel on Amtrak also exceeded expectations due, in part, to increased capacity and the recent introduction of free Wi-Fi service on several Amtrak routes,” said Amtrak Vice President of Marketing and Product Management Emmett Fremaux.
Comparing Thanksgiving 2011 to Thanksgiving 2010, there was an estimated 2.2 percent increase in ridership nationwide. The previous Thanksgiving ridership record was set in 2010 with 704,446 passengers. This year’s Thanksgiving holiday travel week extended from Nov. 22 through Nov. 28.

In preparation for the anticipated heavy passenger volume, Amtrak operated every available passenger rail car in its fleet and scheduled extra trains to accommodate additional passengers in the Northeast and on the West Coast. The Amtrak equipment fleet was slightly larger this year due to rehabilitated and refurbished railcars and locomotive engines that were recently restored to service.
Final ridership numbers will be available in early December.

City.Mobi

Also in US today, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to Sacramento.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

Sacramento.mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.