Auto Train

{{stack|File:Autotrain Lorton.jpg}}

{{Main|Auto-Train Corporation}}

The original Auto-Train operated on Seaboard Coast Line Railroad and Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac tracks. It was operated by Auto-Train Corporation, a privately owned railroad carrier founded by Eugene K. Garfield. Garfield had worked at the U.S. Department of Transportation, which had funded a study of the practicality of an automobile-train service. He then resigned and later used the study as the blueprint for his enterprise. The company provided a service unique in the country: scheduled rail transportation for passengers and their automobiles between Lorton, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and Sanford, Florida, near Orlando, Florida.{{Harvp|Ely|2009|p=5}}.

The Auto-Train Corporation used its own rolling stock, painted in red, white, and purple. The typical train was equipped with two or three General Electric U36B diesel-electric locomotives; {{convert|75|ft|m|2|abbr=on}} double-deck auto carriers; streamlined passenger cars, including coaches, dining cars, and sleeping cars; and {{convert|85|ft|m|2|abbr=on}} full-dome cars; and a caboose, then an unusual sight on most passenger trains. The engines were freight types, purchased at much lower cost than passenger types. But they lacked steam generators, so heat to the passenger cars was supplied by steam-generator cars. Passengers rode in wide coach seats or private first-class sleeping compartments, and meals were served in dining cars. Their vehicles were carried in enclosed autoracks. The company's first autoracks were acquired used, and started life in the 1950s as an innovation of the Canadian National (CN) Railroad. The CN cars were huge by the standards of the time: each 75-footer (23.86 m) could carry eight vehicles, which were loaded through doors at each end.{{Harvp|Ely|2009|p=5}}.{{cite book |last=Lukasiewicz |first=Julius |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lii3rcEBG30C |title=The Railway Game |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |year=1976 |isbn=978-0-7735-8307-8 |pages=198}}

The Auto-Train began running on December 6, 1971. It was immediately popular with the traveling public and at first enjoyed financial success as well.{{cite magazine | title=All Aboard! Cars and People | magazine=Life | volume=72 | issue=11 | pages=54–57 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=elIEAAAAMBAJ | date=March 24, 1972 | access-date=October 11, 2012 | first=Mary | last=Leatherbee}} In fiscal year 1974 the company turned a profit of $1.6 million on revenues of $20 million. In May 1974, service began over a second route between Florida and Louisville, Kentucky, and the company was mulling additional service between Chicago and Denver. The Louisville extension proved to be the company's undoing. The decaying Louisville and Nashville Railroad track between Louisville and Florida (which also hampered Amtrak's Floridian) hindered operations, and a pair of derailments stretched the company's finances to the breaking point. Service ceased in April 1981.{{Cite web|author=National Transportation Safety Board |author-link=NTSB |date=October 21, 1976|title=Railroad Accident Report: Auto-Train Corporation Train Derailment on the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Near Jarratt, Virginia, May 5, 1976 |id=NTSB-RAR-76-11 |url=http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=63795 |publisher=Transportation Research Board }}{{Cite web|author=National Transportation Safety Board |author-link=NTSB |date=September 21, 1978|title=Railroad Accident Report—Derailment of Auto-Train No. 4 on Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, Florence, South Carolina, February 24, 1978 |id=NTSB-RAR-78-6 |url=http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=76346 |publisher=Transportation Research Board }}

File:Auto Train Platform.jpg are lined up at the left, with autoracks visible to the right.]]

File:Auto Train Autoracks Rear.jpg

Amtrak planned to introduce a Midwest–Florida auto train service called "AutoTrak" in 1974. Running between Indianapolis and {{amtk|Poinciana}}, it would have competed with Auto-Train's Louisville–Sanford service.{{Sanders-Heartland|pages=86–87}} Amtrak built a terminal at Poinciana, acquired 20 auto-carrier cars, and ran a test train loaded with rented autos on April 30 – May 1, 1974.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fhpXAAAAIBAJ&pg=3969,4760646

|title=Amtrak Will Build Million Dollar Passenger Facility At Poinciana |date=January 17, 1974 |publisher=Lakeland Ledger |first=Peter |last=Fiero}}{{cite magazine |title=Railroad News Photos |page=12 |date=July 1974 |magazine=Trains |volume=34 |issue=9}} The test train damaged the autos; Amtrak delayed and eventually cancelled the AutoTrak service.

Nearly two years after the Auto-Train Corporation folded, the Virginia–Florida service was revived by Amtrak. Amtrak acquired the terminals in Lorton and Sanford and some of the Auto-Train equipment. On October 30, 1983, it introduced a triweekly version of the service under the restyled name "Auto Train". Daily service was introduced a year later.

Amtrak used Auto-Train's bi-level and tri-level autoracks. For passenger equipment, it initially used a mixture of former Auto-Train railcars and mid-century long-distance railcars from Amtrak's general fleet, all rebuilt to Amtrak's "Heritage Fleet" standards. In the mid-1990s, Amtrak replaced all these passenger railcars, which were of the conventional single-level type, with its newer, bi-level Superliner I and II equipment. In 2006, the aging bi-level, tri-level, and "van" autoracks were phased out and replaced with 80 new autoracks.{{Cite web |last1=Warner |first1=David |last2=Sutton |first2=Harry |title=On Track On Line – Amtrak Passenger Equipment Roster – Rolling Stock |url=http://www.on-track-on-line.com/amtk-roster-cars.shtml#Auto |access-date=January 13, 2018 |website=www.on-track-on-line.com}}

Amtrak operates two Auto Trains simultaneously each day: southbound #53 from Lorton and northbound #52 from Sanford, departing at 5 p.m. for a scheduled arrival the following day at 10 a.m.{{Cite web |title=Amtrak Advisory {{!}} Auto Train Departure Time Change |url=https://www.amtrak.com/auto-train-departure-time-change |access-date=May 18, 2022 |website=www.amtrak.com |language=en}} In practice, however, the trains usually run late. In May 2021, for example, only 31 percent of Auto Trains arrived on time, mostly because of interference by freight trains that have preference over much of the route.{{Cite web |title=Freight Delays and Your Amtrak Service |url=https://www.amtrak.com/on-time-performance |access-date=May 18, 2022 |website=www.amtrak.com |language=en}}

The Auto Train was the last Amtrak service to permit smoking on board. Amtrak discontinued the practice on June 1, 2013.

Auto Train operates on the same route it and its predecessor have always used; the entire route is owned by CSX Transportation except for the southern {{convert|16|miles}}, which are owned by SunRail.

Ridership declined through 2019, then dropped 30.3% to 163,556 in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It recovered somewhat in 2021 to 199,414 and then set a new ridership record in 2022 with 279,019 passengers. This figure rose slightly once more in 2023, with another new record set of 283,646 riders.

The Auto Train has the highest revenue of any Amtrak long-distance train.{{Cite web |date=April 17, 2017 |title=Amtrak FY16 Ridership and Revenue Fact Sheet |url=http://media.amtrak.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Amtrak-FY16-Ridership-and-Revenue-Fact-Sheet-4_17_17-mm-edits.pdf |access-date=January 13, 2017 |publisher=Amtrak}} The train had total revenue of US$75,169,554 in FY2016, down 7.9% from FY2015.

File:Auto TrainAutoracks Front.jpg

The train operates every day. At 12:30 pm, the station gates are opened to allow the vehicles into the vehicle staging area. Here, each vehicle is assigned a unique number, which is affixed to the driver's door magnetically. The vehicle is typically videoed to document existing dents and other damage, in case a damage claim is later filed. The passengers leave their vehicles here and take their carry-on bags with them into the station to await boarding. The vehicles are then staged near the autorack ramps by size and length for optimal loading order and are then loaded onto the autoracks. Motorcycle owners help tie their bikes down to a motorcycle carrier that is then loaded into the autorack. Passengers cannot access their vehicles during the trip.

Vehicles and passengers are accepted up until 3 p.m., after which the autoracks are closed and coupled together, the passenger cars are coupled together in the case of Sanford departures, and the autoracks are coupled to the rear of the consist. At 5 p.m., the train departs the station.{{Cite web |date=January 1, 2016 |title=Auto Train Schedule |url=https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/timetables/Auto-Train-Schedule-092017.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180114073950/https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/timetables/Auto-Train-Schedule-092017.pdf |archive-date=January 14, 2018 |access-date=January 13, 2018 |website=Amtrak }}

About 1 a.m., the train makes its sole scheduled stop, at the Florence, South Carolina, station, where a new engineer and conductors take over and the train takes on fuel and water. No passengers embark or disembark here.

The schedule calls for the trains to arrive in Lorton and Sanford about 10 a.m. the next day. When the trains arrive on time, they have covered the 855-mile (1,376 km) journey in about 17 hours, at an average speed of about 50 miles per hour (80 km/h).{{Cite web |date=January 1, 2016 |title=Auto Train Schedule |url=https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/timetables/Auto-Train-Schedule-092017.pdf |access-date=January 13, 2018 |publisher=Amtrak}}The timetable gives about 17 hours between the two termini. Dividing that into the distance traveled, {{convert|855|mi|km|abbr=on}}, gives an average speed of {{Convert|50.3|mph|km/h|0|abbr=on}}.

Passengers cannot immediately leave the train, as the autoracks are first decoupled from the consist, and in the case of the Sanford station, the passenger cars are split into two sections to fit on Sanford's shorter platforms. At this point, the passengers are then allowed to disembark and move to the auto claim area. Cleaning crews move into the train after passengers leave, and the train is re-supplied with food and water. The passenger car seat backs are flipped to allow everyone in coach to ride facing forward.

The autoracks are further split into three to six sections and each section is aligned with a loading ramp (see picture). The doors between each are opened, and connecting ramps are lowered to allow vehicles to move between cars. At this point vehicles begin to roll off the autoracks and to the claim area, where they are identified and announced by the vehicle number that was attached to the vehicle at the origin station. Vehicles are not unloaded in the same order they were loaded.{{Cite web|url=http://www.wdwinfo.com/transportation/auto_train.htm|title=Disney World Transportation Information – Auto Train|website=www.wdwinfo.com|access-date=January 13, 2018}} It normally takes one hour to unload all vehicles from a full train.

The first 30 vehicles off belong to passengers who have paid an extra fee, a service Amtrak has offered by the name Priority Vehicle Offloading since April 2013.{{Cite web |title=Auto Train Priority Vehicle Offloading |url=https://www.amtrak.com/route-content/auto-train-priority-vehicle-offloading.html |access-date=January 13, 2018 |publisher=Amtrak}}{{Cite news |date=April 15, 2013 |title=Amtrak Auto Train Launches Priority Vehicle Offloading |language=en-US |work=Amtrak Media |url=https://media.amtrak.com/2013/04/amtrak-auto-train-launches-priority-vehicle-offloading/ |access-date=January 13, 2018 |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513184411/https://media.amtrak.com/2013/04/amtrak-auto-train-launches-priority-vehicle-offloading/ |url-status=dead }} The fee has risen from $50 in 2016{{Cite web |last=Amtrak |date=2016-07-17 |title=Family Fun on the Auto Train |url=https://blog.amtrak.com/2016/07/family-fun-auto-train/ |access-date=2023-11-19 |website=Amtrak |language=en-US}} to $60 in 2017 to $95 in 2023.{{Cite web |date=2023-11-19 |title=Amtrak - Reservations - Trip Summary |url=https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/trip-summary.html |access-date=2023-11-19 |website=Amtrak|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119155756/https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/trip-summary.html |archive-date=November 19, 2023 }}

File:Auto Train Autoracks.jpg

{{Main|Lorton station (Auto Train)}}

Lorton, Virginia, is about a half-hour drive south of Washington, D.C., near Interstate 95 in Northern Virginia. Amtrak's new Lorton terminal opened in early 2000 as a replacement for the original station built during the 1970s, and features a large, modern waiting area with high glass walls.{{Cite news|url=http://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/sanford-auto-train-fl-sfa/|title=Sanford – Auto Train, FL (SFA)|work=Great American Stations|access-date=January 13, 2018|language=en-US}} The station was designed by architect Hanny Hassan. The suspended sculpture in the lobby was designed by Patrick Sheridan.[http://www.patsheridan.com/ Patrick Sheridan] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060109110530/http://www.patsheridan.com/ |date=January 9, 2006 }} The platform is {{convert|1480|ft|m|0}} long.

Lorton was selected as site of the northern terminal because the {{convert|20|ft|2|in|m|2|adj=mid|-high}} autoracks were too tall to pass through the First Street Tunnel into Washington, D.C.{{cite press release |title=NEW AMTRAK AUTO TRAIN STATION IS OPEN IN SANFORD |date=October 18, 2010 |publisher=Amtrak |url=http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/476/43/ATK-10-137%20SFA%20station%20event.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002134942/http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/476/43/ATK-10-137%20SFA%20station%20event.pdf |archive-date=October 2, 2012}}

{{Main|Sanford station (Amtrak)}}

Sanford, Florida, is the southern terminus and is about a half-hour drive north of Orlando. The original facility was older and smaller than the terminal at Lorton. At Sanford, the Auto Train loads passengers on two tracks, as no one track is long enough to accommodate all the passenger railcars. Sanford's operation is unique in that a railroad crossing runs through the middle of the rail yard. This complicates some switching procedures and also requires a three-man yard conductor crew – conductor, assistant conductor, and a utility conductor – while operations at Lorton require only a conductor and assistant conductor. Both yards operate with one engineer. Sanford serves as the main mechanical and maintenance location for Auto Train, with diesel and car shops to service the fleet. The city of Sanford provides a shuttle bus to the historic district departing every 20 minutes between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm free of charge on all days except Sundays and certain major holidays.

The Auto Train operates using Amtrak's fleet of bi-level Superliner equipment. A typical consist includes two or three locomotives, followed by a transition sleeper car for crew use, six sleeping cars for first-class passengers, a sightseer lounge car and a full-service dining car, both for first-class passengers, four coach cars, a café/lounge car for coach passengers, and more than 23 autoracks for transporting vehicles.{{Cite web |last=Otte |first=Steven |date=January 27, 2022 |title=Ask MR: Modeling the Amtrak Auto Train |url=https://www.trains.com/mrr/beginners/ask-trains/ask-mr-modeling-the-amtrak-auto-train/ |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=Trains |language=en-US |quote=Today, the typical Amtrak Auto-Train consist is a transition sleeper for the crew, six sleepers for passengers, four coaches, one diner, one lounge, one café car, and upwards of 23 auto racks. Depending on its length, the train is pulled by two or three General Electric Dash-9 P40DC diesel-electric locomotives, standard for the Amtrak fleet.}}{{Cite web |title=Amtrak's Auto Train {{!}} Reviews, Photos & More {{!}} TrainReview |url=https://trainreview.com/train/auto-train |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513184458/https://trainreview.com/train/auto-train |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |access-date=March 1, 2021 |website=trainreview.com}}

Superliner sleeping cars contain a mix of accommodations, including deluxe bedrooms on the upper level, roomettes on both levels, a family bedroom, and an accessible bedroom. Coach cars are equipped with reclining seats on both levels. The sightseer lounge car features wrap-around windows on the upper level and a café on the lower level.

At approximately {{Convert|3/4|mi|km ft}} in length, the Auto Train is among the longest passenger trains in the world.{{Cite web |last=Robbins |first=Jenna Rose |date=2021-07-16 |title=Amtrak Auto Train: Pros & Cons |url=https://jennarobbins.com/2021/07/amtrak-auto-train-pro-cons/ |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=Jenna Rose Robbins |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Britton |first=Jerry |date=February 1, 2022 |title=Amtrak Auto Train |url=https://jbritton.pennsyrr.com/index.php/post-pennsy/other-railroads-articles-blog/latest-articles-blog-postpennsy/593-amtrak-auto-train |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=The Pennsy Modeler}}

• Car shuttle train
• Motorail
• Eurotunnel Shuttle (for cars and trucks)

{{reflist}}

{{notelist}}

• {{Cite book|last=Ely|first=Wally|year=2009|title=Auto-Train|series=Images of Rail|edition=1st|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-6785-3}}

{{Commons category|Auto Train}}

• {{amtrak web|route=yes}}

{{Amtrak routes}}

{{Amtrak rolling stock}}

Category:Amtrak routes

Category:Railway services introduced in 1983

Category:Passenger rail transportation in Virginia

Category:Passenger rail transportation in Florida

Category:Passenger rail transportation in Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:Passenger rail transportation in South Carolina

Category:Passenger rail transportation in North Carolina

Category:Night trains of the United States

Category:1983 establishments in the United States

Category:Long-distance Amtrak routes