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RALEIGH — If you want to beat the holiday traffic, lose the keys for a train ticket.

The ridership for the North Carolina Amtrak station in Raleigh has gone up this Labor Day weekend. The new Piedmont mid-train service between Charlotte and Raleigh began on June 5. From June 2009 to June 2010 ridership has gone up 200-percent.

“It's a great way to beat the traffic, you can read, you can work on the computer and you can spend time with the kids,” said Melina Cope.

Dozens of passengers are ditching the roads for the ride. In fact, just last Friday, there were 284 riders at the Raleigh Amtrak station and on Labor Day Friday they were expecting more than 334 riders, which is a 10 to 15-percent increase.

“We're very excited about that and we feel like it's going to continue to grow as people see that the train as a viable option,” said Joan Bagherpour, of the North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail Division.

That train is said to be auto competitive with a three hour ride, but some riders may disagree.

“Sometimes they have too many delays for me but it's a comfortable ride,” said Johnson County resident Larry Johnson.

As far as train fares go, toddlers up to two-years-old ride for free, children between ages 2 and 15 ride for half the price of whatever an adult ticket would be, and 15-percent discounts go to seniors, college students, the military, and American Automobile Association members.