Travelers Jam Roads, Depots in Yule Exodus : Holiday: Delays dampen the trek for many. No serious accidents are reported on local freeways.

With the last hours of Christmas Eve ticking away, travelers clogged Ventura County freeways, train stations and bus depots Thursday in a mass holiday exodus.

Freeway traffic moved smoothly through the morning commute but grew far heavier by midafternoon--especially on the Ventura Freeway--as businesses closed early and travelers hit the road, said Russ Snyder, spokesman for the California Department of Transportation.

“We haven’t had any serious accidents, but traffic is very heavy,” agreed California Highway Patrol Officer T. J. McAllister. “We’ve had some minor wrecks.”

Christmas Eve is one of the heaviest travel days of the year, second only to Thanksgiving eve, said Jack McCrory, owner of the Greyhound Lines bus station in Oxnard.

“Luckily, we’ve got enough drivers and enough buses,” said McCrory, whose station is located at the Oxnard Transportation Center, one of the busiest hubs in the county.

McCrory said he had to call in an extra bus after the 11:10 a.m. bus bound for Los Angeles filled up, leaving outbound passengers grousing.

“I was afraid I wasn’t gonna make it,” grumbled Joe Adams, 18, a California Conservation Corps member from Camarillo who had to wait more than an hour to catch the second bus home to Fresno, via Los Angeles, to see his grandparents.

He struck up a conversation with Saticoy longshoreman Rudy DeLeon, 31, also stranded waiting for the bus that would take him to Los Angeles to catch another bus to see his family in Riverside.

“I didn’t think I was going to see my nephew, but I’m going,” DeLeon said.

“I don’t mind the wait,” said Sheldon Haines, 22, a Navy airman stationed at the Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station. He waited calmly nearby to hop the same bus--the first leg of a 28-hour trip to surprise his wife and young son in Centralia, Wash.

“When I came down here to check into the command, I got married one day and left the next,” Haines said philosophically. “The best thing is you just keep an open mind. Expect the unexpected.”

A minister stood with a placid smile, waiting for the replacement bus to begin his three-day trip to Michigan to see his children for the first time in three years.

“Patience,” intoned the 43-year-old Oxnard resident, who would not give his name, “is the key to wisdom.”

Thursday evening, the death of a pedestrian on Metrolink rail tracks in Simi Valley slowed westbound commuters as well as Amtrak travelers bound for San Diego from Santa Barbara. Officials said the death was an apparent suicide.

Due in Los Angeles at 6 p.m., the Amtrak train was still at the Moorpark station at 7 p.m. as workers hurriedly arranged to have buses pick up passengers in Moorpark and deliver them to Los Angeles and San Diego, an Amtrak official said.

“We realize it’s Christmas Eve, and we’re trying to get people to where they’re going,” said the official, who asked not to be identified. No other Amtrak train was expected to be delayed because of the fatal accident, the official said.

Earlier in the day, the 11:36 Amtrak Coast Starlight train pulled in at the transportation center 15 minutes late, dropped off a load of passengers and picked up others bound for the Pacific Northwest.

Ken Minkus, 48, and Jean Fink, 35, both of Westlake Village, trundled a huge cartload of luggage toward the gleaming double-decker train that would take them on a holiday trip to Seattle and Vancouver, Canada.

“I’ve done it before, and my girlfriend never has,” Minkus said, smiling. “So I thought I’d give her a treat. You can look out and see all the scenery.”

For some, the key to tranquillity lay in carrying the right equipment.

Camelia Nila, a 44-year-old secretary, watched her 4-year-old daughter, Brianna, daub a chicken with a green marker in one of the three coloring books that she brought along to ease the long bus trip to El Monte.

“That’s the only way to travel with a kid,” the elder Nila said with a knowing smile.

Conservation Corps member James Green, 20, who was waiting for the bus to take him to his family in Lake Elsinore, just shrugged. “I told my parents not to worry, just expect me at 5 in the morning,” he said with a laugh.

Impatient, DeLeon stalked outside for a cigarette, cursing under his breath, just as the replacement bus pulled around the corner 45 minutes later than promised.

“Whoa, there it is,” he said, pocketing the unlit smoke. “All right, let’s go!”