Auto Train discussion

[dromio515]

This is true. We encountered the same issue last trip. If you want to eat in your room on the autotrain, be sure to request it at check-in.

 

[bbappel]

Maybe overworked instead of lazy. Dinner time is a busy time for them.

 

[OBS]

Maybe overworked instead of lazy. Dinner time is a busy time for them.

No, it is lazy. It is the SCA who would be responsible for procuring the meal. They are not overworked at dinner.

 

[Bob Dylan]

No, it is lazy. It is the SCA who would be responsible for procuring the meal. They are not overworked at dinner.

From one who has "Been there/Done that!"

 

[pennyk]

No, it is lazy. It is the SCA who would be responsible for procuring the meal. They are not overworked at dinner.

Thank you for your response. My friend asked the SCA that since he would not bring her dinner if he could just bring her a dessert and milk, which he did (and even before the 8:30pm time that he suggested). She mentioned that the SCA spent quite a bit of time on the PA announcing that it was his birthday, which she found annoying. My friend was in a bedroom and spent a lot of money for the accommodation and it is quite disappointing that she was treated so shabbily.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Thank you for your response. My friend asked the SCA that since he would not bring her dinner if he could just bring her a dessert and milk, which he did (and even before the 8:30pm time that he suggested). She mentioned that the SCA spent quite a bit of time on the PA announcing that it was his birthday, which she found annoying. My friend was in a bedroom and spent a lot of money for the accommodation and it is quite disappointing that she was treated so shabbily.

Hopefully she'll report this person, the AutoTrain really seems to be slipping from what it used to be!

 

[disnycrayz]

I traveled traveled the Auto Train twice in May with my elderly mother in a sleeper in both directions. Due to Covid concerns we did not want to eat in the Dining car with strangers at our table. When you check in they assign you a dining time but I asked specifically for in room service at the desk. The gentleman at the desk in Lorton cheerfully told me that was not a problem and helped me decide on a time. A week and a half later on the way back, the lady at the desk in Sanford was another story. She rolled her eyes and said “We don’t do that for anymore, that option is only for guests with disabilities.” I kindly explained that my mother is elderly, walks with a cane, has a handicap placard, and that she was concerned about Covid(we were both wearing masks in the station.) She exasperatedly responded “She can’t walk between a few train cars?” I told her no because she is not steady on her feet especially when the train is in motion, which is true. She said “well next time put that she is disabled on your reservation. We are not supposed to do this!” Every other Amtrak employee was extremely kind and gave excellent service. I chalked it up to her having a rough day (the incoming train was 2 hrs late) and dealing with a lot of demanding senior citizens. Needless to say I’ve taken her advice and marked a disability on the reservation for our next trip.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I traveled traveled the Auto Train twice in May with my elderly mother in a sleeper in both directions. Due to Covid concerns we did not want to eat in the Dining car with strangers at our table. When you check in they assign you a dining time but I asked specifically for in room service at the desk. The gentleman at the desk in Lorton cheerfully told me that was not a problem and helped me decide on a time. A week and a half later on the way back, the lady at the desk in Sanford was another story. She rolled her eyes and said “We don’t do that for anymore, that option is only for guests with disabilities.” I kindly explained that my mother is elderly, walks with a cane, has a handicap placard, and that she was concerned about Covid(we were both wearing masks in the station.) She exasperatedly responded “She can’t walk between a few train cars?” I told her no because she is not steady on her feet especially when the train is in motion, which is true. She said “well next time put that she is disabled on your reservation. We are not supposed to do this!” Every other Amtrak employee was extremely kind and gave excellent service. I chalked it up to her having a rough day (the incoming train was 2 hrs late) and dealing with a lot of demanding senior citizens. Needless to say I’ve taken her advice and marked a disability on the reservation for our next trip.

Another example of someone in a Position they shouldn't have!

 

[Palmland]

It does seem there’s always a few bad apples on Amtrak but generally we’ve found excellent crews on auto train - three trips last year and next one in May.

The two SCA’s we’re familiar with on AT are truly outstanding. It may be that they are always on the mostly all bedroom cars (are 4 roomettes downstairs). Don’t know if they are somehow assigned to those cars. Also I’ve noticed what seems to be a supervisor on the train- don’t know if that’s a regular position or just hit or miss. I’ll ask next trip.

It is ironic that passengers need to be disabled to eat in their rooms. Don’t think that’s ever been the case before and just a few months ago it was hard to eat in the diner - mostly because they were understaffed from Covid. I suspect the incident described by @disnycrayz was a ‘rule’ made up (or misinterpreted) by that employee.

 

[Mariemichele]

Mid-august (thursday) is it a big period for auto train Sanford to Lorton? I don’t know between coach ou roomette for 4? C’est

 

[pennyk]

Mid-august (thursday) is it a big period for auto train Sanford to Lorton? I don’t know between coach ou roomette for 4? C’est

In my limited experience, the Auto Train northbound tends to be most crowded in the spring, when "snow birds" are returning back home before summer hits in the south. Whereas, Auto Train southbound tends to be more crowded in the late fall/early winter when "snow birds" come south to avoid the winter in the north.
If 4 are traveling, you will need 2 roomettes, which will be much more comfortable than coach.

 

[Maglev]

Mid-august (thursday) is it a big period for auto train Sanford to Lorton? I don’t know between coach ou roomette for 4? C’est

I think one important consideration when deciding between coach and sleeper is how far one must drive after arrival. It's probably not a good idea to set off on a long drive after not sleeping in coach.

 

[b243923]

Amtrak has raised the minimum price for coach seating on the Auto Train. Price increased from $89.00 to $95.00 now

 

[joelkfla]

If it’s purely public transit. Then the Auto train gets disestablished

Why? In FY22, the Auto Train was #5 in ridership among LD trains, and took a heck of a lot of cars and their pollution off the road, which is certainly a major objective of public transit. Nobody rides the Auto Train to sightsee, they ride it to get from point A to Point B along with their cars.

 

[Mailliw]

It's possible the Auto-Train gets different equipment than the rest of the long-distance fleet.

 

[Lcon]

Why? In FY22, the Auto Train was #5 in ridership among LD trains, and took a heck of a lot of cars and their pollution off the road, which is certainly a major objective of public transit. Nobody rides the Auto Train to sightsee, they ride it to get from point A to Point B along with their cars.

First I am not saying they should disband it at all. I favor implementing a combination of both it’s just I think Amtrak tends to cut down on the frills where they shouldn’t.
Auto train is a tourism enterprise, though the ridership doesn’t drive between Virginia and Florida, like a ferry once in state they are driving and most users are coming from the Midwest so the drive emissions is a bit of a wash. As they are already driving from Chicago or the like to Virginia and back. They (Amtrak and Autotrain) tried extending a line to Chicago but the track conditions were to bad.
On the range curve at over 800 miles the Auto train is Firmly in the range where regional air is more fuel and time efficient.
The whole justification was based off the original Auto train, which operated as a tourism enterprise based on the statistics of snowbirds wintering in Florida well preferring to bring their own cars. They were Driving there as opposed to high cost of renting or buying a car for the use of weeks or months of winter escape.
If the aim was purely transportation Auto train wouldn’t exist. As it’s well outside the too far to drive to close to fly mantra. Unlike other Amtrak LD routes where you can hop on at secondary points along the way. Auto train is end to end service only. The logistics of loading and unloading an auto rack necessitates such. I mean it requires a shunting locomotive, ramps a rail yard of its own has to be set up to load and unload plus enough space to accommodate the dozens of racks on both ends.
So it’s a very expensive and specialized service. Not one that a purely public transportation service would have.

 

[PrduPete]

Amtrak never tried to run an Auto Train to the Midwest by itself. The Auto Train Midwest operation happened before Amtrak took over the Auto Train from the previous private enterprise that used to run it. For a while that train was attached to the Amtrak Floridian instead of running as a train by itself.

According to this, they did try one called AutoTrak to be run Indianapolis to a new station in Poinciana.
AutoTrak - Wikipedia
There is a link at the bottom of that article to a PDF from the Amtrak News announcing their plans for the service.

The Auto-Train ran a service from Louisville to Sanford from 1974-1977. This one did get connected to the Floridian towards the end.
The 1971 - 1981 auto-train

 

[jis]

According to this, they did try one called AutoTrak to be run Indianapolis to a new station in Poinciana.
AutoTrak - Wikipedia
There is a link at the bottom of that article to a PDF from the Amtrak News announcing their plans for the service.

The Auto-Train ran a service from Louisville to Sanford from 1974-1977. This one did get connected to the Floridian towards the end.
The 1971 - 1981 auto-train

Right. I should have said "never succeeded in" instead of "never tried to". I stand corrected on that.

It never ran as a regular service. It was particularly looked down upon by Congress because Amtrak with public subsidies was trying to compete with a legitimate privately run operation. For that reason it never had a future as long as Auto Train was in business trying to have a go at the Midwest - Florida market. Once Auto Train went out of business, Graham Claytor took the initiative to bring it under the Amtrak fold, and by then it was quite obvious that Amtrak could not justify the Midwest to Florida service. They instead worked on putting the east coast Auto Train on firmer footing with a solid plan to replace its aging equipment with new equipment, which happened with the acquisition of new Auto Racks and Superliner IIs.

At least what was planned as the southern terminus, Poinciana Station saw a revival with it becoming the southern terminus of the SunRail Service, at least for the time being until it gets funding and political alignment of the stars for possible extension to Lakeland.

 

[Trogdor]

Auto train is a tourism enterprise, though the ridership doesn’t drive between Virginia and Florida, like a ferry once in state they are driving and most users are coming from the Midwest so the drive emissions is a bit of a wash. As they are already driving from Chicago or the like to Virginia and back.

Maybe I'm missing some nuance here, but where is the information that says most Auto Train users are coming from the midwest? Who, exactly, is driving from Chicago to Virginia to take the Auto Train to Florida?

 

[jis]

Maybe I'm missing some nuance here, but where is the information that says most Auto Train users are coming from the midwest? Who, exactly, is driving from Chicago to Virginia to take the Auto Train to Florida?

I was thinking the same. Just looking at license plates of cars coming off the Auto Train at Sanford, there is little evidence that too many, indeed anyone at all, are coming from Midwest to get on the Auto Train. They all seem to be from the NEC-land.

 

[JWM]

Europe has a lot of "auto trains" and the loading/unloading process takes much less time, but so do stops for regular trains. I live in Sarasota, Florida. We took it once years ago and found that, for us, it wasn't worth the price for the time saved. Nevertheless, I do hope it is doing well.

 

[joelkfla]

Auto train is a tourism enterprise,

Just because it serves tourists doesn't make it a tourism enterprise. Fact is, most of the passengers would be traveling between the NE and FL whether the Auto Train existed or not. And I'm not sure snowbirds, who I believe make up a significant portion of the passengers during certain times of year, can properly be called tourists.

though the ridership doesn’t drive between Virginia and Florida, like a ferry once in state they are driving and most users are coming from the Midwest so the drive emissions is a bit of a wash. As they are already driving from Chicago or the like to Virginia and back.

Source?

On the range curve at over 800 miles the Auto train is Firmly in the range where regional air is more fuel and time efficient.

Source?

If the aim was purely transportation Auto train wouldn’t exist.

It is purely transportation -- to wit, getting from point A to point B. The reason for the transportation is irrelevant. I repeat: they're not sightseeing, their purpose is to get somewhere, not to experience the journey.

As it’s well outside the too far to drive to close to fly mantra.

So what? As long as it's getting the job done, it doesn't matter.

The logistics of loading and unloading an auto rack necessitates such. I mean it requires a shunting locomotive, ramps a rail yard of its own has to be set up to load and unload plus enough space to accommodate the dozens of racks on both ends.
So it’s a very expensive and specialized service. Not one that a purely public transportation service would have.

Yes it is a complicated process, but do you have proof that it is unprofitable, or rather, further in the red than other Amtrak services?

 

[PrduPete]

Maybe I'm missing some nuance here, but where is the information that says most Auto Train users are coming from the midwest? Who, exactly, is driving from Chicago to Virginia to take the Auto Train to Florida?

I'm sure I'm an anomaly, but when planning our annual trip this year from Indiana to Florida, we decided to leave a week early, drive to DC to take in the sights there for a few days, and then take the AutoTrain down to finish our trip south

 

[Exvalley]

I booked a northbound trip for the latter half of August. When we arrive in Lorton, I still have an 9 hour drive to get home (if there is no traffic).

Is it worth paying the $60 fee for priority off-loading? On the one hand, I doubt that the train is very full that time of year, but on the other hand, I don't want to wait an hour or more to get my car.

I know that this is a subjective question, but your thoughts are appreciated. I used points for the reservation, so I am inclined to pay the fee.

 

[Palmland]

I think you’re answering your own question- if time is important and cost isn’t (for priority), go for it!

Be aware, though, vehicle and priority prices have increased.

Since our home is 30 min fromu Sanford and our son is 2 1/2 hrs from Lorton we've never considered it. Our last 4 trips vehicle availability ranged from a 30 min wait to almost 2 hours (about the last one off on a very full train).