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Students flying home from school this Thanksgiving weekend may see shorter lines at security checkpoints.

The Transportation Security Administration has enacted a new family line to speed up the security process at airports, including the Dane County Regional Airport.

Sharyn Wisniewski, marketing and communications manager for the Dane County Regional Airport, said the new line is meant for families with small children or people with disabilities who need a little more time to get through security.

“It can be used by anyone who doesn’t want to feel stressed when going through the security checkpoint,” Wisniewski said.

The new measure, along with the addition of a security checkpoint at the south end of the airport, should move an estimated 3,500 travelers through security, efficiently Wisniewski said.

According to Allen Fugate, operations manager at Van Galder Bus Company, Thanksgiving weekend is one of the busiest times of the year for the transportation industry.

“You generally have a lot of people traveling over a short period of time,” Fugate added.

Wisniewski agreed, saying that because Thanksgiving is compressed over such a short time period, the airline industry often refers to it as the busiest time of the year, while people schedule Christmas flights over several different days.

The new family line at security checkpoints will go into effect Tuesday and last throughout the holidays.

“We’ll see how it works, and hopefully this will be a benefit for both the infrequent flyers and people who travel often,” Wisniewski said.

Among the changes in the security lines at the Dane County airport, Wisniewski said they now have a Metro bus route that drops off at the airport and will be opening an additional parking ramp soon.

Wisniewski said the ramp has been in construction for a while, and they now have at least half of it available for an additional 600 cars to park over Thanksgiving weekend.

For students who do not have cars or do not plan on driving them to the airport, they can use Madison Metro route 20, Wisniewski added.

Students who live downtown must take a different route, such as route 2 or 4 to the north transfer point, where they can transfer to route 20.

However, many students who live in the Midwest do not need to fly home but must rely on other forms of transportation.

Fugate said the Van Galder Bus serves many cities in the Midwest, including Milwaukee, Minneapolis and three locations in Chicago: downtown, O’Hare airport and Midway airport.

“A lot of the UW students are making a quick getaway for the weekend,” Fugate said. “We add additional buses on each run. We run our regular schedule but just add more buses to them.”

The Greyhound Bus Company also sees a significant increase in riders over Thanksgiving and increases the number of busses on popular routes as well, Eric Wesley, spokesperson for Greyhound, said.

“We have quite a few college students that ride Greyhound,” Wesley said. “They’re one of the main demographics for us.”