ANAHEIM, Calif. — Millions of Americans are expected to travel for Christmas and New Year’s despite pleas from health officials to stay home. 

The trains in Southern California would normally be standing room only this time of year, but not only are there less people traveling, they’ve also capped the capacity of the rail cars at 55%.

Still, many like Denise Lopez are depending on the trains to see their families for the holidays.

Lopez, who left her hometown when she was 18, is the only one in her family who has a long way to travel to get home for Christmas. She planned to work through the holidays, but when her mom fell and sprained her ankle in a horrible accident, Lopez called out and made her way to San Diego to help her family.

Although not mandatory, Lopez also got a COVID-19 test more than 24 hours before catching a train in Anaheim.

There is more to her visit than just helping her mom heal.

“It’s hard especially cause like sometimes there’s like things that I want to tell her that’s like more important to tell her in person than over a phone call or through a FaceTime,” said Lopez.

Lopez is part of a dwindling number. Ridership on the 351 miles of the Pacific Surfliner Service is a tenth of what it was pre-pandemic and yet customers are supposed to supply 70% of its revenue.

To cope with this, half of the daily roundtrips have been cut from the schedule and all employees have been removed from several train stations.

In addition, passengers cannot check a bag until further notice. 

Donna DeMartino is the Managing Director of the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency, which oversees the Pacific Surfliner Service. She has to walk a fine line between encouraging people to obey the health orders and needing travelers to stave off ruin.

“We’ve had to make some tough decisions, but those tough decisions are all based on maintaining basic service,” said DeMartino.

Even though she has her own car, Lopez prefers the train. Nothing could derail her plans.

Besides empty trains, there are a few other noticeable differences like the added hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes dispensers. The snack car is still selling food, but everything is enclosed with Plexiglas. Passengers have to take everything back to their seat to eat.

Travelers will need a reservation until December 28 for the Pacific Surfliner trains.

Normally customers can buy a ticket and take multiple trains leaving at different times to get to their destination. However due to the capacity cap, a reservation specific to one train is required.