Beach Bottom Blues

The Amtrak Auto Train is one of Amtrak’s long-distance trains, and is one of the only trains outside the Northeast Corridor that is occasionally profitable. It runs a non-stop route from Lorton, Virginia, just south of the Capital Beltway, to Sanford, Florida, near Orlando.

We had a trip to Florida in May planned, for a well-earned two week vacation at our beach condo. We had talked about taking the Auto Train to Florida many times, but hadn’t because of the expense. A week before we were leaving, I checked the prices out of curiosity. For $557 one-way, we could afford it as a trial run and as an experience. (Coming back would have been nearly $1,000 more, so it was a nonstarter to go both ways.)

I mentioned this to Barbara, and she said she would think about it. Two days she said “I’ve been reading about the Auto Train. Want to do it?” I made sure she was serious, and then proceeded to book our tickets.

We had taken the train to Florida 16 years ago, in a coach seat. The train stopped every hour on the hour in small towns throughout the Carolinas, and the doors at each end of the train car were loud at 3 in the morning. I ended up spending the night smoking with the conductors in the smoking car, and was miserably sleepy when I arrived. Now, nicotine-free and older, there was no way we were going to take a coach seat. I booked us a roomette compartment in a sleeper car.

Amtrak requires you to be at the Lorton station by 2:30 PM for the 4:00 PM departure (2:00 PM for priority offboarding.) We both worked a half day, and had loaded the car the night before, so we could head out straight from work to the station. We got there around 1:30 PM. There was a line of cars queuing for the gate where they assigned a number. You then drove to one of the lanes where you left your keys in the car with the window rolled down.

You leave all of your heavy luggage in the car, and just carry an overnight bag on the train. Bring any medication you need, clothes for the next day, and pajamas for the overnight (for me, gym shorts and a t-shirt).

The Auto Train is a long train, 50 cars, pulled by two locomotives. Seventeen are passenger cars, a mix of Superliner double-decker coach seats, sleepers, diners, and lounge cars. The remaining 33 cars are car racks, each carrying 10 cars. The maximum capacity is 650 passengers and 330 cars. It was taken over from the Auto Train Company, which ran this route and also a route from Louisville to Florida. The Louisville route had several derailments, and led to the bankruptcy of the company in 1981. Amtrak started operating the Lorton route in 1983.

The run is 855 miles over 17 hours. There is one stop in Florence, SC, to refuel and change train crews. The Auto Train does not allow smoking, so if you’re still addicted, the Florence stop is the only time you can get off and burn one. The train typically runs between 60 and 70 miles per hour. You’ll note that this doesn’t add up to 17 hours, but that’s because the train will have to stop in Florence, and also make other stops along the way to let other trains pass by. There are no station stops except at the beginning and end, which makes for a faster run than the Silver Meteor and Silver Star.

We had a relatively light load, about 200 people and 100 cars. The train arrived a little late, but was cleaned and serviced quickly. The cars were loaded on the car racks, the passengers were boarded, and the various segments of the train were coupled together. We rolled out of Lorton by 5 PM.

We were on the upper level of a Superliner sleeper car in what they call a roomette. Basically, the two seats fold into a bed, and a bunk folds down from the wall above the lower bed. It’s snug but not uncomfortable when sitting, you’re knees aren’t hitting each other or anything. There is very little storage space, and what you think is storage is actually the steps up to the bunk.

We were soon running 70 miles an hour down the old RF&P main line. The roadbed in Virginia is in good shape and the ride was comfortable. Our sleeping car attendant stopped by to introduce himself, point out the lights and outlets in our compartment, and schedule time to convert the room for sleeping.

After he left, we celebrated the beginning of our vacation. There is coffee, tea, ice and water available for free in each sleeper car. Barbara hit the ice drawer in the hallway, and I fixed us a drink out of some minibottles I had in my carryon. After that, we thought another drink would be a fine idea and headed to the Lounge car. Drink prices are similar to airline prices.

We had made dinner reservations for the 7:30 PM service when we checked in at the Lorton station. Dinner was OK, not great. Unlike our previous trip 15 years ago, where crabcakes and roast beef were available, tasty, and obviously cooked onboard, the offerings were barbeque pork shank or braised beef short ribs, and looked like the kind of food designed to be easily warmed up in a microwave. I know it’s probably cheaper than having a cook and the requirements of a real kitchen on board, but it’s not as tasty.

While we were at dinner, announcements were made for the movies to be shown in the Lounge car. We were tired though, so we headed back to our roomette and prepared to bed down for the night. The attendant came by around 9:30 and made up the beds, and we made an early night of it. Barbara bunked on the top bunk, and gave me the bottom bunk.

We stopped in Florence, SC around 11 PM, where two fuel trucks drove up to refuel the locomotives. Then after the fuel break, we went back out on the road. The quality of the roadbed declined as we went through the night. Several times the train bucked and bumped harder than we expected, even being horizontal and trying to sleep. The upper bunk has straps to hold you in, but that is not necessarily comforting.

Barbara was particularly uncomfortable on the upper bunk. The temperature control in the room didn’t work well, which we didn’t figure out until the next day. She was very cold and the vent was blowing right on her. Also, the bunk was a little narrower and shorter than the one on the bottom, and that little bit made a difference in the comfort.

We dozed through the night, occasionally waking up when the train would bump. I would check my cellphone mapping to see where we were, and how fast we were going. However, having the door made the ride quieter than if we were in coach seats, and we were able to be completely horizontal, so we were able to rest much better than we had before.

Sunrise came about 6:30 in the morning as we were approaching Jacksonville, Florida. We watched as the sun lit up the swampy palmetto scrub along the tracks, and then went to the dining car for breakfast. Breakfast was a bagel and cream cheese, bananas, cereal, coffee cake, juice and coffee. We came back to our roomette, and our attendant was setting up other compartments for day use, and soon did ours as well.

The train made it into Sanford station about 30 minutes ahead of schedule, around 8:30 AM. The platform in Sanford is too short for the train, so the train has to be uncoupled and passenger cars are put on both sides of the platform.

The car racks are pulled around to the other side of the station and the cars are unloaded. Unloading the cars can take as long as 90 minutes. Very few people had paid the $50 for the priority offloading, and since we were one of the later cars to be loaded, our car was unloaded in about 10 minutes and we were on our way. The only snag was that our cooler in the car had tipped over, so there was some water in our back seat. Make sure, if you carry something that has to be upright, that you pack it accordingly.

The drive to the beach was quick, and shortly after 10 AM, we were at our beach place in New Smyrna Beach.

Advice:

• If you’re going to do this, get a roomette or other sleeper car accommodations. A single person might tolerate the coach accommodation, but I wouldn’t
• Get to the station by 2:00 PM for motorcycles, trailers, and priority unloading, or 2:30 PM for everyone else. Amtrak starts accepting cars at 11:30 AM. We got there at 1:30 PM and had to wait a little while.
• Only bring an overnight bag containing pajamas, next days clothes, and medicine on the train. Leave all of your luggage in your car.
• If you have a cooler or something else that has to stay upright in the car, make sure you pack other things around it. DO NOT PACK YOUR OVERNIGHT BAG AROUND IT AND THEN TAKE THE OVERNIGHT BAG ON THE TRAIN!

More good information can be found here: Amtrak Auto Train Travel Tips

Tipping on the Auto Train (and other sleeper services):

Tips aren’t required, but they are expected. We tipped our sleeping car attendant $10 for making up the beds, unmaking the beds in the morning, and telling us about how to get comfortable on the train. I gave him that after he set up the room in the morning. We also tipped the guy in the cafe car the same as we would in a land-based bar, about $1 a drink or 20%, whichever is more. Finally, dinner and continental breakfast are included in the fare, so we tipped the servers in the dining car 20% of what we thought the dinner would cost in a land-based restaurant. This amounted to a $6 or $7 tip for dinner, and $3 or $4 for breakfast for two.

Service provider	Gratuity
Sleeping car attendant	$5-$10 for two people
Cafe Car attendant	$1 per alcoholic drink or 20%
Dining Car servers	20% of estimated cost of meal – $6-7 for dinner, $3-4 for breakfast for two.

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