# Auto Train Trip Report



## Dovecote (Nov 30, 2009)

My wife and I just completed a round trip journey on the Auto Train. This was my first trip on this train since 1978 when it was operated privately by the Auto-Train Corporation. We departed on November 12 from Lorton and returned on November 26 from Sanford. On each trip we were fortunate to receive what I believe was the low bucket rate of $93 per person for the rail fare, $169 for the oversized size vehicle charge, and $124 for the roomette.

On the departing trip we had an uneventful one and half hour drive from Harpers Ferry to Lorton. We arrived at the entrance gate, assigned a vehicle number, drove to the vehicle dropoff area, and then proceeded to the station. Inside the station we received our coach car and seat assignments and selected a time for the evening meal. The waiting room was comfortable and enjoyed watching news on the television until boarding the train. We boarded the train and proceeded to coach car 5310. The car was fairly full but all of the single passengers were able to sit by themselves. There were even some couples that were able to relocate to empty seats and sit solo for the duration of the trip. It was later announced that the train received 345 passengers and 197 vehicles.

Prior to our departure, a trip to the lounge car revealed there was complimentary fruit and party snacks for the taking. Our dinner meal was well above board and we enjoyed the complimentary wine that came with the meal. The coach car had some noisy passengers that made the trip a little less enjoyable. Fortunately at around 10:00 PM there was an announcement that quiet hours would commence until 6:00 AM. Passengers were asked to turn off their cell phones and be respectful during the quiet hours. Most were compliant to this request.

During the night the train stopped on three lengthy occasions. It was later announced the next day that one of the engines failed and a replacement engine was added in Florence. At breakfast we were forewarned that the train would be late. The infamous mystery “stew” would be provided to us for lunch. Actually it was a conglomeration of rice, potatoes, beef, carrots, beans, and gravy. The train arrived in Sanford around 1:30 PM around four hours late. Upon arriving, the auto carriers were soon separated from the train and moved to the vehicle loading area. The Auto Train informational booklet that was issued to us when we checked in at Lorton indicated the unloading process could take up to two hours. Fortunately for us we received our vehicle about 45 minutes later. We were greeted to Friday afternoon traffic in Orlando and proceeded to our second home in South Georgia arriving around 7:00 PM.

On our return trip we left our home in South Georgia early Thanksgiving morning and hoped traffic would be tolerable on I-10 and I-75. We were fortunate to have only a moderate traffic flow for the duration and arrived in Sanford four and half hours later. The check-in process was repeated although due to a light crowd there was no choice of a dinner assignment. Everyone would be served at 6:00 PM. The waiting room in Sanford was a far cry from the facility in Lorton. The main waiting room was cramped and definitely in need of an overhaul. There was an overflow waiting room adjacent to the main room in an erected tent structure. It was musty and dreary. The good news is a new facility is on agenda and there were visible signs of construction underway for a new building.

We boarded the train around 2:30 PM and proceeded to sleeper car 5244 roomette 6. At around 3:00 PM we departed to the sleeper lounge car for complimentary wine, cheese, and party snacks. This concluded about an hour later and we returned to our room. Later our welcome announcement revealed that the train passenger list totaled 97 passengers (52 in sleepers and 45 in coach) and 48 vehicles. The train consist included 6 sleeping cars and 4 coach cars. The coach car adjacent to our sleeper was completely empty.

Our dinner meal was again well above board. To celebrate Thanksgiving my meal selection was the turkey dinner. The dining car for sleeping passengers was a cut above the coach dining car. The meal was served on china with white tablecloth linens. Glassware was provided for our wine (a choice of red or white) and other beverages.

The train seemed to operate on time during the night. There was even an earlier than usual morning announcement that we would arrive early and breakfast hours would be abbreviated. As it turned out our arrival in Lorton station was at 7:00 AM. Unfortunately the staff at the station does not begin work until 8:00 AM so we had to remain in the train until at least that time. We departed from our car after the special need passengers were first escorted off. At around 8:15 AM we were in the station waiting for our vehicle. The vehicle was unloaded around 8:45 AM and then proceeded to our home in Harpers Ferry. The Auto Train is a great alternative to driving down to Florida and I would highly recommend taking it.

Until next time,

Dovecote


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## Bob Dylan (Nov 30, 2009)

Enjoyed the report, sounds like yall had a pretty smooth trip! I know the traffic around Orlando can approach LA and Houston terrritory so good that yall hit it right! Im surprised the staff @ the station didnt open till 8AM when yall were early, I havent seen this ever, but usually the trains are late! :lol: Glad yall got a turkey dinner, beats the infamous beef stew and the flat iron mystery train kill from this summer! :lol:


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## AlanB (Nov 30, 2009)

jimhudson said:


> Im surprised the staff @ the station didnt open till 8AM when yall were early, I havent seen this ever, but usually the trains are late! :lol:


This frequently happens with the AutoTrain. In fact going southbound, it's not uncomon to find one's self sitting on the main line tracks if the train is early because the yard crews haven't shown up yet to unlock the derail and set the switches.


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## Rumpled (Nov 30, 2009)

Bummer that they cut breakfast short even though it seems they had the time to keep you on the train.


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## Pastor Dave (Nov 30, 2009)

Thanks for the report. We'll be doing the AutoTrain again in February and it is a great way to travel.


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## Long Train Runnin' (Dec 1, 2009)

I enjoyed the report! I hope to ride the Auto Train someday.


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## Phila 30th St (Dec 1, 2009)

Thanks for the report! Can you earn AGR points on the oversized vehicle charge?


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## AlanB (Dec 1, 2009)

Last I knew one had to call AGR to get the points for your vehicle to post. Because of the rule that you cannot earn points for multiple tickets for the same train number on the same date, the auto ticket doesn't normally post automatically. It is possible that they've since fixed this issue, but somehow I rather doubt it and you are indeed entitled to points for the Auto, without regard to size.


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## Dovecote (Dec 1, 2009)

Phila 30th St said:


> Thanks for the report! Can you earn AGR points on the oversized vehicle charge?


Yes. My points for the 11/12 trip posted on 11/21. The details are shown below. I eliminated the ticket numbers for security issues although they were not identical. The $169 transaction amount is the oversize vehicle charge. It was nice collecting a cool 1,012 points to my AGR account with the fall double points promotion. Now I am debating on taking an Acela roundtrip from WAS to BAL to have enough points to reach select status.

Posted Date Type Description Travel Date Points

11/21/2009 Amtrak Travel Travel: LORTON - SANFORD AUTO TRAIN

Ticket Number: XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Transaction Amt: 83.70 11/12/2009 168 view details

11/21/2009 Amtrak Travel Travel: LORTON - SANFORD AUTO TRAIN

Ticket Number: XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Transaction Amt: 169.00 11/12/2009 338 view details

11/21/2009 Bonus 91409 - Fall Dbl Points Promo 168

11/21/2009 Bonus 91409 - Fall Dbl Points Promo 338


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## Long Train Runnin' (Dec 1, 2009)

Just a note on the Acela trip. You need to go further then BAL to get the 500 points.

The city pairs are:

Boston - Stamford, Boston - New York, Boston - Newark, Boston - Metropark, Boston - Washington, Boston - Philadelphia, Boston Back Bay - Stamford, Boston Back Bay - New York, Boston Back Bay - Newark, Boston Back Bay - Metropark, Boston Back Bay - Washington, Boston Back Bay - Philadelphia, Route 128 - Stamford, Route 128 - New York, Route 128 - Newark, Route 128 - Metropark, Route 128 - Washington, Route 128 - Philadelphia, Stamford - Washington, New York - Washington, Newark - Washington, Metropark - Washington.


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## Dovecote (Dec 1, 2009)

Long Train Runnin said:


> Just a note on the Acela trip. You need to go further then BAL to get the 500 points.
> The city pairs are:
> 
> Boston - Stamford, Boston - New York, Boston - Newark, Boston - Metropark, Boston - Washington, Boston - Philadelphia, Boston Back Bay - Stamford, Boston Back Bay - New York, Boston Back Bay - Newark, Boston Back Bay - Metropark, Boston Back Bay - Washington, Boston Back Bay - Philadelphia, Route 128 - Stamford, Route 128 - New York, Route 128 - Newark, Route 128 - Metropark, Route 128 - Washington, Route 128 - Philadelphia, Stamford - Washington, New York - Washington, Newark - Washington, Metropark - Washington.


Oh boy! Was not aware of that. Thanks for this information.


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## Long Train Runnin' (Dec 1, 2009)

Dovecote said:


> Long Train Runnin said:
> 
> 
> > Just a note on the Acela trip. You need to go further then BAL to get the 500 points.
> ...


I couldn't tell by you post so I figured I'd add it to make sure you didn't make a mistake and miss select


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## AlanB (Dec 1, 2009)

Dovecote said:


> I eliminated the ticket numbers for security issues although they were not identical.


Ticket numbers would never be identical, since it is two different tickets, one for you and one for the vehicle. The reservation number would be the same, but not the ticket numbers.

And I'm glad to see that it does look like they fixed the posting issue with the AT. Points always used to post properly years ago, right up and until the new rule about earning points only once for the same train on any given day. I'm actually a bit surprised that they did manage to fix the issue, but I am nonetheless happy that they did get it fixed.


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## ALC Rail Writer (Dec 2, 2009)

Alan, I'm guessing both tickets would have the same train number on them, but correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it a 'simple' matter of making sure that vehicle tickets are printed with a special barcode that allows the computer to understand "these tickets are an exception to the rule" and credit them.


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## Dovecote (Dec 2, 2009)

ALC_Rail_Writer said:


> Alan, I'm guessing both tickets would have the same train number on them, but correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it a 'simple' matter of making sure that vehicle tickets are printed with a special barcode that allows the computer to understand "these tickets are an exception to the rule" and credit them.


I can answer the first part of your question. Yes, both tickets had the same train number (53) on them.


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## AlanB (Dec 2, 2009)

While I could be wrong, as I've never bothered to actually test/examine the bar code, I believe that the bar code is simply the ticket number encoded. The computer after scanning then looks at the reservation number to see if there are any AGR numbers associated with that reservation and awards points accordingly.

So again pre the same train scenario, any time a ticket was scanned you got points if there was an AGR number in that reservation. In fact, it's for this reason that one can call up Amtrak and still get your AGR number into the reservation even after your ticket has been taken by the conductor, as long as you beat the person scanning the tickets. When they found the abuse that was occuring after the 100 point minimum was started, they reprogrammed things to block out any subsequent tickets for the same train number on the same day. That killed getting points automatically for your auto.

Just how they reprogrammed things to get around that problem is hard to say, although frankly in my mind the easiest thing to do would be to just write a rule that exempts train numbers 52 & 53 from the single ticket per train rule. After all, one can't easily abuse the 100 minimum point rule on the AT.


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## ALC Rail Writer (Dec 2, 2009)

That's true... no intermediate stops.


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## AlanB (Dec 2, 2009)

And you have a "confined" group of people taking the tickets, who can easily be told not to accept more tickets than there are people and cars within the party.

Unlike the conductor on one Keystone train who took something like 50 tickets from one person on one ride, despite the fact that the passenger was only going like 2 stops. It was that abuse that I suspect really started the crack down on the one ticket per train.


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## Dovecote (Dec 2, 2009)

AlanB said:


> Dovecote said:
> 
> 
> > I eliminated the ticket numbers for security issues although they were not identical.
> ...


I am happy too, along with many others I would assume, that the vehicle charge posting issue has been resolved. Had it not been an automatic posting I would not have expected to receive points for the vehicle.


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## AlanB (Dec 2, 2009)

Dovecote said:


> AlanB said:
> 
> 
> > Dovecote said:
> ...


I'm glad too, since I have seen reports of people calling to get those points and being told by AGR agents that they weren't entitled to any points for the car.


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## Dovecote (Dec 5, 2009)

Hello All,

Just a final note that my points posted for the 11/26 trip including the vehicle charge points. I will miss the fall double points promotion. This round trip journey netted me 2,520 points to my AGR account.

Posted Date Type Description Travel Date Points

12/04/2009 Bonus 91409 - Fall Dbl Points Promo 338

12/04/2009 Amtrak Travel Travel: SANFORD AUTO TRAIN - LORTON

Ticket Number: XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Transaction Amt: 207.70 11/26/2009 416 view details

12/04/2009 Amtrak Travel Travel: SANFORD AUTO TRAIN - LORTON

Ticket Number: XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Transaction Amt: 169.00 11/26/2009 338 view details

12/04/2009 Bonus 91409 - Fall Dbl Points Promo 416


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