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Auto Train (Amtrak)

(Redirected from Auto Train)

Auto Train is a scheduled public rail transportation service for both passengers and their automobiles operated by Amtrak between Lorton, Virginia (near Washington, D.C.) and Sanford, Florida, near Orlando. It is the only one of its kind in the in the United States.

Today's Auto Train service (which began in 1971 under Auto-Train Corporation) has specialized equipment enabling customers to take along their car, small van, or motorcycle when they travel north or south on the east coast. Passengers ride in either wide coach seats or private first-class sleeping compartments while their vehicles are safely carried in enclosed auto carriers, which are called autoracks. The train includes dining cars and meals are served.

Amtrak's Auto Train offers an alternative to motorists who would otherwise drive their automobiles the 855-mile (1375 km) distance. For vacationers with destinations at one or more of the many popular tourist attractions, the Auto Train service offers the dual features. They may avoid the long automobile ride on busy Interstate 95 in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and still have the convenience of use of their own automobile upon arrival.

For details of the route between the termini, see Silver Service and Palmetto.

Contents

History: Auto-Train Corporation, an innovative railroad

The Virginia-Florida service began as an innovative concept of Auto-Train Corporation founder Eugene K. Garfield . His novel approach allowed families to relax en route and save the expense and unfamiliarity of a rental car on arrival.

Auto-Train Corporation was a public stock corporation which operated as a railroad, used its own rolling stock, and traveled on rails leased from major railroads along the route. Auto-Train Corporation trains initially operated on Seaboard Coast Line (SCL) and Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac (RF&P) tracks.

Locomotives, passenger cars, autoracks, and cabooses

Auto-Train Corporation acquired a fleet of 13 General Electric U36B diesel-electric locomotives. These were very similar to ones used by Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, the host railroad for most the the route's length.

The passenger cars, including coaches, dining cars, sleeper cars, and dome cars, were acquired used from many major railroads, including Sante Fe, Union Pacific, and Western Pacific.

Auto-Train Corporation's first autoracks were also acquired used. They started life in late 1957 as a new innovation for Canadian National Railway (CN). The CN bi-level auto-rack cars had end-doors. Huge by the standards of the time, each 75-footer could carry 8 vehicles. The CN autoracks cars were a big success and helped lead to the development of today's enclosed autoracks. The former CN auto-racks were augmented by new tri-level autoracks in 1976.


At the end, unlike most trains of passengers cars, an Auto-Train consist included a caboose. Like the rest of the equipment, the cabooses were was painted in red, white, and purple colors.

The typical train varied from 30 to 64 cars, pulled by with two or three locomotives, and included 76' double-deck autoracks, a number of streamlined passenger cars including coaches, 85' dome cars, dining cars, sleepers, and a caboose, then an unusual sight on most passenger trains.

Business success and failure

Auto-Train Corporation's new service began operations on December 6, 1971. The service was a big hit with travelers. It reported profits the first few years. Before long, the ambitious entrepreneurs of Auto-Train were looking to expand into other markets.


Garfield, the company's president, inaugurated a second Auto-Train service in May, 1977 from Louisville, Kentucky to Sanford, Florida. It operated for only a short period before shutting down in September, 1977, reportedly having lost millions of dollars. Only the original Lorton-Sanford service had proved successful.

Two Auto-Train derailments in 1976 and a major derailment in 1978 shut down service for weeks and cost the company more than $6 million in lost revenue. Debts accumulated, including millions in taxes, leading to cutbacks in maintenance that slowed operations.

High crew costs, the spectacular accidents with the 58 to 64 car trains, and the unprofitable expansion into the Louisville-Sanford route combined to force the company into bankruptcy. Auto-Train Corporation was forced to end its services in late April, 1981.

Operating for almost 10 years, Auto-Train had developed a popular following, particularly among older travelers as it ferried passengers and their cars between Virginia and Florida.


Several smaller companies began scrambling to pick up its stranded customers. A company operating as Auto-Bus carried its customers in buses and their cars in trailers operating between Pennsylvania and Florida. Another company, Autolog Corporation, offered a service to carry a car by trailer between the northeast and Florida but required that the car's owner arrange their own transportation. There were also several companies that hired drivers to take cars to vacation areas for their owners.

However, no one else offered a service quite like that of Auto-Train Corporation: transporting a car and its passengers together (on the same movement, at the same time) to and from vacation areas.

While their venture ultimately failed financially as a for-profit business (as many passenger train operations had earlier in the United States), Garfield and Auto-Train Corporation had identified a service people wanted.

Amtrak steps in to fill the gap


The Auto-Train Corporation service had been a private venture. After a period of 22 months without service, the service was revived by the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, better known as Amtrak, a federally-chartered corporation which operates most intercity passenger trains in the United States.

Amtrak acquired the terminals in Lorton and Sanford and some of the rolling stock of Auto-Train Corporation. After thoroughly rebuilding the equipment, Amtrak reintroduced its slightly renamed "Auto Train" service on a tri-weekly basis on October 30, 1983. Daily service was introduced a year later.

Amtrak continued to use the former CN bi-level and the newer tri-level autoracks Auto-Train Corp had purchased new in 1976. For passenger equipment, Amtrak initially used its Heritage Fleet passenger cars, including many rebuilt Auto-Train Corporation cars. In the mid-1990s, Amtrak converted the passenger cars on the Auto Train to Superliner (railcar) I and II cars.

In modern Amtrak operations, Auto Trains normally operate with two General Electric P40 diesel-electric locomotives and 40 or more rail cars. The autoracks normally run on the rear of Amtrak Auto Train consists. Stretching over a quarter-mile, there are no cabooses on Amtrak's Auto Trains.


There are currently two Auto Trains in operation simultaneously. Each day, at 4:00 pm, there are departures (one each north and south bound) from either the Lorton or Sanford terminals. Florence, South Carolina is the only scheduled crew and servicing stop on the 855-mile run. Each train is scheduled to arrive at the other end the next morning at 8:30 am, following a 16.5 hour ride, an average of almost 60 miles per hour.

Today, Amtrak's Auto Train carries about 200,000 passengers and generates around $50 million in revenue annually. Operating on leased CSX Transportation tracks for the entire distance, it is considered Amtrak's best-paying train in terms of income in comparison with operating expenses.

Lorton Terminal

Lorton, Virginia is about a half-hour drive south of Washington, DC, just off Interstate 95. Amtrak's new Lorton terminal opened in early 2000, and features a large, modern waiting area with high glass walls.

Outside the waiting room are the tracks where passenger cars are set out for boarding. At 1480 feet in length, the platform at the Lorton Auto Train station is 1/3 of a mile long.


Sanford Terminal

The Sanford Auto Train terminal is about a half-hour drive north of Orlando. It is an older and smaller facility than the terminal at Lorton. Currently, the Auto Train loads in Sanford on two tracks, as no one track is long enough to accommodate all the passenger cars in a consist.

Amtrak and the State of Florida are working on plans to replace the Auto Train facility in Sanford with a new terminal designed to accommodate more passengers, as well as local commuters and bus service.

A model for similar services

Auto-Train Corporation reported profits on the Virginia-Florida route, although it sustained some losses while the business was gaining volume and due to several major accidents. Auto-Train Corporation also sustained substantial losses attempting to expand the service in other markets. An earlier service to allow passengers to bring their automobiles along which was attempted by Canadian National Railway (CN) on selected passengers trains was also not successful.

Amtrak's current Virginia-Florida Auto Train has been successful economically due to a combination of these factors:

  • 1. There is a sufficient volume of customers.
  • 2. The customers are willing to accept a single departure and a single destination point.
  • 3. The customers willing to pay a premium price in order to avoid driving and have the use of their own car at destination.
  • 4. The parallel highway corridor is very congested.
  • 5. The customers do not choose to travel via commercial airliner despite lower costs and travel times offered.


Contracting (privatization) candidate

Amtrak services are federally-funded, and operated by an organization which is not a for-profit corporation, and is not an actual governmental agency. There is open debate in the United States whether such services could and/or should be contracted to and provided by private companies through a competitive bidding process.

Amtrak's Auto Train is often cited as one of the most likely candidates for such a change, on the basis that Auto-Train Corporation reported profits during its' early years of service (prior to the several costly accidents and unprofitable expansion into a new market).

Whether Amtrak's current operating costs for the Auto Train route could be successfully reduced is unclear, However, there is no question that the service on the Virginia--Florida route is popular.

See also

External links

  • the official Amtrak website http://www.amtrak.com
  • Trainweb site with thousands of photos and links to other rail-related sites http://www.trainweb.com
  • Bill's Railroad Empire - the original Auto-Train page http://www.billsrailroad.net/auto-train/page-1.html n-scale modeling
  • George Elwood's Fallen Flags site, original Auto-Train pages http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/atc/at.html lots of locomotive and rolling stock photos
  • from a 1971 Auto-Train Corp. brochure, including information on the 2nd short-lived Auto-Train route (Louisville-Sanford service) http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/atc/atr-broch.html
  • a Yahoo group for Auto Train Enthusiasts http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Auto-Train/
  • Diesel Shop rail photo site http://www.thedieselshop.us/GPHOTO.html photo of Auto-Train diesel-electric locomotive when almost new
  • photos and data, Amtrak autoracks http://www.hebners.net/amtrak/amtRACK.html
  • Orlando Sentinel newspaper article about Auto-Train Corp and Amtrak's Auto Train replacement http://www.utu.org/worksite/detail_news.cfm?ArticleID=1258


Last updated: 02-02-2005 07:33:23
Last updated: 03-01-2005 21:48:46