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Auto Train (Amtrak)

Auto Train
AMTK 707 (P30CH) Autotrain, Sanford, FL (22737450251).jpg
Two Amtrak GE P30CH locomotives on the front of the Auto Train at Sanford, Florida in 1987
Overview
Service type Inter-city rail
Status Active
Locale Eastern Seaboard
First service 1983
Current operator(s) Amtrak
Former operator(s) Auto-Train Corporation
Ridership 712 daily
274,445 total (FY14)
Route
Start Lorton
Stops 2
End Sanford
Distance travelled 855 miles (1,376 km)
Average journey time 17 hours, 30 minutes
Service frequency Daily
Train number(s) 52, 53
On-board services
Class(es) Reserved coach and Sleeper
Seating arrangements Reclining seats
Sleeping arrangements Roomettes and bedrooms
Auto-rack arrangements Yes
Catering facilities On-board café and dining car
Observation facilities Sightseer Lounge
Baggage facilities
  • Overhead racks
  • baggage car
Technical
Superliner
Track gauge 4 ft 8 12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Track owner(s) CSX, CFRC

Auto Train is an 855-mile-long (1,376 km) scheduled train service for passengers and their automobiles operated by Amtrak between Lorton, Virginia (near Washington, D.C.), and Sanford, Florida (near Orlando). Although there are similar services around the world, the Auto Train is the only one of its kind in the United States. The Auto Train is the only north–south Amtrak train in the east to use Superliner cars.

Passengers ride either in coach seats or private sleeping car rooms while their vehicles (car, van, sport utility vehicle, motorcycle, small trailer, or jet-ski) are carried in enclosed automobile-carrying freight cars, called autoracks. The train has a maximum capacity of 320 vehicles. The train also includes lounge cars and dining cars. The Auto Train service allows its passengers to avoid driving Interstate 95 in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, while bringing their own vehicle with them.

The service operates as train 53 southbound and 52 northbound, the train is non-stop between its terminals at Lorton, Virginia, and Sanford, Florida. Amtrak's Auto Train is the successor to an earlier similarly named service operated by the privately owned Auto-Train Corporation in the 1970s.

During fiscal year 2011, the Auto Train carried over 250,000 passengers, a 6.4% increase over FY2010. The train had a total revenue of US$68,618,768 in FY2011, an increase of 12.5% over FY2010. The Auto Train had the highest revenue of any long-distance train in the Amtrak system.

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 founded by Eugene K. Garfield. Garfield had worked at the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Department had funded a study of the practicality of an automobile-train service. Garfield resigned and used the study as the blueprint for his enterprise. The company used its own to provide a unique rail transportation service for both passengers and their automobiles in the United States, operating scheduled service between Lorton, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and Sanford, Florida, near Orlando, Florida.


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Wikipedia

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