Passenger Trains > Auto Train - non-railfan's trip report

Two of my friends took Auto Train from Florida to Virginia about a week ago. Here are the highlights and lowlights of their trip.

Arrived Sanford about 1pm, line of traffic stretched to the public street and down the street and around the corner. It took an hour and 30 minutes to get the car checked in.

Only dinner reservation was 9pm so they declined. They are also tired of the same menu every trip. The lady is diabetic so she had prepared for the trip with a food supply.

Train departed about 90 minutes late.

Train was packed, most everyone about 90 years old (exaggeration) with only a couple of families.

They had a downstairs family bedroom It was clean and well kept up. The car didn't have any coffee or ice "because it wasn't hooked up to the train". Couldn't get milk for cereal or anything else without hiking multiple car lengths (lady is mobility limited). Attendant was relieved he didn't have to make up the upper bed, as the passengers were running him ragged, the friends said he was a very nice man and thus received a generous tip.

The stop in Florence which is usually 20 minutes was 2 hours.

The ride through NC was terrible, The man was tossed back and forth in bed about 3 feet it was rocking so violently, and this was on the lower level. Other passengers were commenting on the same thing next morning. The lady chose to sit in a chair rather than lie down after being tossed against a wall the rocking was so violent. An employee said "they were making up time".

Neither went to breakfast due to the walk. Few other passengers made the hike.

There were exactly 8 employees unloading cars at Lorton. Eight cars came out then there was a considerable delay then eight more cares came out. The wait for preferred unloading was approaching an hour.

They have ridden many miles on Amtrak primarily Auto train and northeast services and never had such a bad trip. Based on their points standing the return trip will be free. They return to Florida this week.


They also overheard a story about a female passenger and her autistic son traveling in coach. The child was uncontrolled, running about the car and screaming with the parent doing nothing. In order to help the coach passengers, she and the child were moved to a roomette at no extra cost. Once there the woman left the child by itself for about 90 minutes while she went to the diner. As expected the child was screaming, running in the hall and entering rooms and slamming the door repeatedly. When she returned she didn't care at all. Attendant said he couldn't do much according to regulations and out of the entire car he received 3 tips amounting to about $20. (I definitely will not consider working for Amtrak).

I will hope for a better return trip for them. This is posted with their approval. As we were having dinner an email from amtrak showed up asking for their opinions on food service.


Michael

It has been my experience on the Auto Train that the attendant will bring your dinner to your room if you ask.

That trip sounds awful. On so many levels.

Car attendants have always been OK with getting dinner, etc. It is part of their job

Posted from Android

I think part of the issue too is employee moral is so low due to how many issues there are right now with the company. Many just don't care much anymore like they used to.

> An employee said "they were making up time".

No. But if CSX put the train on the slower track, it can be rough when the train runs at MAS.
 

That rough track report is really bad news.

Non-trainfan people will give up passenger trains altogether at a certain point.

I wish Amtrak would file a complaint against the CSX before the STB, claiming
this rough track is interfering with their ability to offer acceptable service to
customers on one of their most popular trains.

Any idea where the train encountered rough track?  CSX has done a pretty good job improving at least one track from Jacksonville to Richmond.  Last trip north (2023) I made a mental note about how much better it was.

Amtrak has/had a great brand going with the Auto Train. Not good to hear things like this. 

jp1822 Wrote:
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> Amtrak has/had a great brand going with the Auto
> Train. Not good to hear things like this. 

While obviously every reviewer has the right to report a negative experience and some of the complaints are legit gripes against Amtrak (like the lack of ice and coffee, potentially the lateness, etc.), some of these items that contributed to their negative experience aren’t really the fault of the crew and are just simply lousy luck. I have found the lower level rooms in general on the Superliners provide hands down the roughest ride across the network and always avoid them - I always go for the upper level. Now obviously that’s a problem for those with mobility challenges and is Another reason why I’m glad the accessible rooms on the newer equipment will be upstairs. And as far as screaming kids….that’s really just a matter of lousy luck and can happen on any mode of transportation. I think Amtrak totally hears it on the mobility issue hence why they want to improve things on the new equipment in that regard and make the central facilities like the diner and lounge more accessible.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/24 05:15 by lordsigma.

With Sanford just 20 minutes from their home I have friends (kinda rail fans...) that have been using Auto Train for nearly 20 years to attend the Train Collector's Association meets in York PA twice a year. They recently almost gave it up due to inconsistent levels of service in most areas mentioned in this thread but have remained loyal customers since escaping the long drive ultimately won out as the years pass. Being fellow geezers they can be more tolerant of delays and also have never been concerned about the cost other than feeling the increases were hard to accept in view of the service issues they have experienced. One thing that did change is they no longer stay at the large hotel that was once one of the "hubs" of those York train meets after it swapped brands 3 or 4 times in the same time frame. Quality of service continued to decline so they switched to booking a B&B for several years now with no regrets.

So, they are willing to adjust but Auto Train is a unique service with no competition. In my case, I'm warped enough to still enjoy driving open roads but even so I wish there was a business model to support an east/west Auto Train-like service. We will likely have our vehicle shipped west in advance of taking the Canadian/ to Vancouver in order to begin a trip to Alaska once Alaska Railroad #557 returns to service.     

Auto shipping services from southeast Florida to the northeast and Ohio etc are very good.

Competitive on price, some use team drivers for 20 hour service, deliver to your neighborhood, sometimes to your driveway.

Option 1 - drive to Sanford, take Auto-Train, drive from Lorton to northern NJ. Takes about 30 hours, costs about $1100.

Option 2 Horseless Carriage picks up your car in your gated community, takes it to NJ. You take Uber the next morning to the airport, fly, take Uber home. Your car arrives later that day. Cost is about the same.

Amtrak doesn't have a monopoly, and its cost to customers is growing non competitive.

Posted from Android

emd_mrs1 Wrote:
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>
>
> .................The ride through NC was terrible, The man was
> tossed back and forth in bed about 3 feet it was
> rocking so violently, and this was on the lower
> level. Other passengers were commenting on the
> same thing next morning. The lady chose to sit in
> a chair rather than lie down after being tossed
> against a wall the rocking was so violent. An
> employee said "they were making up time"....................
>
>
> Michael

A few years ago, my wife and I rode The Canadian, booked in Prestige Class, from Vancouver to Toronto.  The ride was so horribly rough at speed that we could not sleep.  My wife was scared to death as the car wildly lunged from one side to the other.  At breakfast in the diner the next morning, the chief steward, while pouring my wife a cup of coffee, dumped the entire cup onto the table, just nearly missing my wife and then he joked about it.  At dinner, wine was served in water glasses, as the ride was so violent that stemware was deemed to be "unsafe."

In addition to the absolutely horrible ride quality, the train sat parked in the middle of nowhere for hours at a time, which screwed up the scheduled stops, arriving in places we wanted to visit, in the middle of the night, instead of during daylight hours as scheduled.  By the time we were half way through our trip, we arrived in Winnipeg NINETEEN HOURS LATE.  So, I had a talk with the conductor, and we left the train there, spent the night in a luxury hotel, had dinner at a fabulous restaurant and flew back home the next day.

I have ridden regular and high speed trains in Europe and have NEVER had an experience even close to the horrendous experience we had on The Canadian.  However, since it was the legendary "Canadian," when I posted my trip review in the Canadian Railroads section, I was ripped to shreds for telling the truth.  Evidently, saying ANYTHING other than absolute praise for the storied train really hits a nerve with some rail fans.  We paid over $9,000.00 for that Prestige Class bedroom--not to mention the cost of getting to Vancouver from our home in Orange County--and it was an absolute BUST and "THE" worst train trip I have ever taken.  

The bottom line for me, in conjunction with the OP's well written trip report, is that good quality, comfortable train travel--let alone LUXURIOUS train travel--in the USA & Canada is a thing of the past, with the possible exception of private offerings, such as The Rocky Mountaineer, etc.

Streamliner Wrote:
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> The bottom line for me, in conjunction with the
> OP's well written trip report, is that good
> quality, comfortable train travel--let alone
> LUXURIOUS train travel--in the USA & Canada is a
> thing of the past, with the possible exception of
> private offerings, such as The Rocky Mountaineer,
> etc.

I don't think it has anything to do with private vs. publicly funded operations....Rocky Mountaineer largely uses the same track as VIA and Amtrak for it's US and Canadian operations.  A big difference is Rocky runs a day time-only operation where a rough ride may be less of a problem.  That said, you're correct in identifying poor track condition as an impediment to offering a quality travel experience.  The model we've chosen to adopt in North America - relying on freight roads to provide ROW for passenger trains - often doesn't lend itself to guaranteeing a comfortable ride, particularly for older, less mobile passengers.  A decade ago I accompanied my then eighty-seven year old father on the A-T, and saw first-hand that it was difficult for him to move around the train despite having good dexterity for his age.  Given the predominant demographic of A-T passengers, ride quality is a significant issue for the viability of the service.

Dave