Amtrak isn’t organized overall, and I say this as much as I love the train. I have enough experience to know that they’re nothing like trains in other countries. In particular, I’d never recommend Auto train to anyone. I love the experience of the train, but the worst experience I ever had taking a train was taking Auto train with my younger brother Jeff back in 2008. We booked the trip a week in advance thinking that it might be nice, like the videos online. Boy, we were wrong.
They schedule this 855-mile trip to take 17 hours from Lorton, VA to Sanford FL, yet it was 25 hours (not including all our other waiting time). The traffic lines were long to the terminal, with a crowded waiting room we shared with many other overbooked passengers.
The cabin was small, and the food was bad, in small portions and costly (being the most expensive frozen food I ever had).
When we finally got there, Jeff and I waited an additional 3 hours for him to get his car. The trip costed over $800 for us and Jeff’s car. Jeff had to wait over 3 months to get a reimbursement check from Amtrak to the extensive damage done to his car while we were aboard the train. Apparently, these valets aren’t very good at what they do.
Originally, it was Jeff’s idea to take the Auto Train for a trip, and it was a $1500.00 experiment we both regrated. Still, it was educational, and I’d never ask Jeff to pay me back my part, even though he offered. Cars and trains never mix well. Amtrak’s Auto-train is an east coast trip (one line only). With a direct route, it extends the trip by more then 6 hours and cost more than $500.00 over taking the train directly between Florida and points northeast or driving the same route. So, the best way is to just take the train OR just drive, but don’t do both in the same trip.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++