Auto Train (Amtrak)

Auto Train

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 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Track owner(s)	CSX, CFRC
Route map Dist. Station 0 mi 0 km Lorton VA NC NC SC Florence(service and smoking stop) SC GA across Savannah River GA FL across St. Marys River 855 mi 1376 km Sanford This diagram:

Route map
Dist. Station 0 mi 0 km Lorton VA NC NC SC Florence(service and smoking stop) SC GA across Savannah River GA FL across St. Marys River 855 mi 1376 km Sanford This diagram:

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.