Heavy Thanksgiving holiday traffic on the road and on the rails meant a long day for many travelers yesterday, including those waiting for buses to depart from Portland, Maine.
(Robert F. Bukaty/ Associated Press)
Holiday travelers stall on Turnpike
2 accidents bring significant delays on area roadways
Heavy Thanksgiving holiday traffic on the road and on the rails meant a long day for many travelers yesterday, including those waiting for buses to depart from Portland, Maine.
(Robert F. Bukaty/ Associated Press)
There was not a lot of holiday cheer on the roadways yesterday as motorists flocking to their Thanksgiving destinations ran into massive delays, including a backup of more than 40 miles on the Massachusetts Turnpike.
“At its worst point, there was close to a 45-mile backup on the Mass. Pike’’ westbound, said Mike King of SmartRoute Systems. He said traffic rolled slowly from Route 128 to Interstate 84 from 2 to 4 p.m. The hour ride took over two hours, he said.
South of Boston, travelers also had to wait. I-93 south was filled with vehicles for much of the afternoon, stretching the typical 20-minute ride from Boston to Braintree to about an hour, King said. “It’s just a lot of holiday volume,’’ he said. “That’s what we expected, and that what it’s been in previous years.’’
Contributing to the gridlock on the Pike were two accidents, one at 10:25 a.m. in Oxford and one at 11:05 a.m. in Millbury.
Turnpike tollbooths were fully staffed all day to minimize delays, said a state Department of Transportation spokesman, Adam Hurtubise. Despite the backup, toll workers were not asked to wave travelers through.
Luisa Paiewonsky, administrator for the state highway system, said it is up to State Police to recommend waiving tolls. In this case, the traffic was not causing a safety problem, she said. Transportation Secretary Jeffrey B. Mullan said he was monitoring the situation all afternoon and was posting updates on Twitter.
Traffic remained heavy on the state’s highways until just after 7 p.m., State Police spokesman Lieutenant David Wilson said last night. Wilson said he expects traffic to stay light until Sunday “when everyone is going home.’’
No serious accidents were reported yesterday, he said.
At South Station, holiday travelers overtook the usual commuting crowd. Hannah Wareham, 22, of Brighton found a seat, where she huddled with her laptop. She had a 90-minute wait after missing her train to Cohasset because of traffic. “I was not looking forward to taking the T with my bags, so I got a ride from a friend,’’ she said. “We should have left earlier.’’
An Amtrak spokesman, Cliff Cole, said the railroad had “a good day’’ on the Northeast corridor between Boston and Washington. Ridership was heavy, but the trains were on time, he said.
He said 125,000 passengers were expected to ride through the corridor yesterday, a 70 percent increase over a typical Wednesday.
At the South Station bus terminal, Nicole LeDuc, 25, and Ryan Hartigan, 32, of Providence arrived more than an hour early for a 4:15 p.m. bus to Bangor.
“America is the only place in the civilized would where you can buy a ticket and still not have a spot [on the bus] when you get there,’’ said the New Zealand-born Hartigan.
The engaged couple were in the middle of an eight-hour journey and had already seen the ruthless nature of some Thanksgiving travelers. Hartigan joked that he was nearly run over by several baby strollers.
“They’re very aggressive; people want to get where they’re going,’’ LeDuc said. “They run you over and then say ‘Happy Thanksgiving.’ But they mean it, too.’’
Globe correspondent Abbie Ruzicka contributed to this report. 
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