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Auto Train North- April 1, 2016


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#1 howardj

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Posted 06 April 2016 - 09:15 AM

Forgive me all, but this is going to be a long report covering several aspects of the trip north.

 

As I usually do I had been checking on departure and arrival times of the train for a couple of weeks before our trip. The trains departing Lorton departed very close to on time with a few being late departing and the arrival in Sanford was late nearly every day. This is the 7th or 8th year in a row that we've used the train and our previous experience was leaving both stations early and arriving early most of the time. Each year the arrival seems to be later and later and it doesn't seem to matter if it's a weekday or the weekend.

 

On this day the arriving train was an hour and a half late. We arrived at the station at about 10:15 AM and we were the 7th or 8th car in line. The arriving train came in 15 minutes or so after we arrived and it finished unloading cars at about 11:50 AM. It is important to note that the line we were in was the line indicated by the directions printed on the ground for where to line up. Not long after us a second line formed just to the left of us ( facing the check in booths). At a little after 12Noon the line to our left started to move. I found it infuriating that people who arrived much later than we did were processed thru the booth before us. Soon the cars in the original line started to merge with the second line. When we got up to the booth there was a large trash can and a traffic cone in the road in front of the booth that was indicated as where to line up. It would appear that the second line that formed had no such blockage in the lane. When we finally got in to the station to check in I asked to speak to the manager on duty and told her about this. She looked at me like I had 2 heads and her reply was " what difference does it make, your a sleeping car passenger anyway and you get everything, it makes no difference" and she walked away.

 

The train didn't start to board until after 3PM and the Coach section was the first to board. At 3:30 all but one of the sleepers was boarded and the train left the station at 4:45 PM.

 

Our Sleeper car attendant was Jad. This was Jad's first trip as an attendant. We had a first timer once before and he was a disaster so we were a bit concerned particularly seeing the way things were going, but Jad proved to be excellent. Although very young, he was smart, engaging, personable, professional and efficient. He absolutely was as good as any attendant we've ever had. This was crew #2

 

This trip had the largest number of passengers since we started to use it. There were 596 people. Instead of the usual 6 sleeper cars there were 7 on this trip. In total there were 50 rail cars, 17 passenger and 33 Auto Carriers. There was a total of 308 Vehicles.

 

The train arrived just after 10AM, a little more than an hour late. With our priority unloading status we were leaving the station at 10:25. Our car was nearly the last of the priority cars unloaded, a change because the last few trips we were either the first or second car off the train.

 

Now a couple of final comments....  I had written that the fares had jumped significantly when I went to book our trip South next December. It was explained that Amtrak had caught on that some us understood the "bucket system" that was used for pricing and they turned the tables by posting the highest prices as soon as the train could be booked ( 11 months before departure) and then the price would come down in 4-6 weeks if the bookings weren't what they expected. That is exactly what happened to us. When we booked in January the fare was almost $1100. In February when I check the fare had come down by more than $400. I called and Amtrak was happy to rebook me at the lower fare. Of course if I wanted to have my credit card credited there would be a " cancellation penalty" applied. If I left the money as an e voucher for future travel there would be no penalty. I opted to pay the penalty and get my money credited to my card.

 

It used to be very enjoyable, stress free, easy traveling when we started using the train. The service in the sleepers was great and Amtrak truly did seem to have its best people on the Auto Train. With very few exceptions that is no longer the case . So for us, we'll use the Auto Train to go south, at least we will this coming December, but we're going to drive back north next April and see how that goes. 

 

Too bad Amtrak makes what was once a pleasure trip so very stressful.

 

I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone has.

 

Sorry for the length of the report.



#2 KevinKorell

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Posted 09 April 2016 - 10:00 AM

Not at all a long report, at least by my standards !!! :)

Thanks for your report, Howard. It's too bad you found some less than stellar employees on the Auto Train. The one with the attitude that you as a sleeper passenger already get everything was inexcusable. She missed the entire point of your valid complaint. The fact that you were among the last of the priority cars unloaded might have something to do with which line was taken first. I am assuming that the 2nd line was started to keep backed up traffic off local streets. When the consist is out of its usual schedule window, I'm sure this happens often since passengers arrive when they are supposed to, but the train has not yet arrived and unloaded from its inbound trip.


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#3 howardj

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Posted 09 April 2016 - 01:46 PM

The Manager that said that insisted that the it was a passenger that took it upon themselves to start the second line. She insisted that Amtrak would never do such thing which is utter nonsense because I've seen them direct cars to form another line for the very reason you mentioned, keeping cars off the street and across the tracks, especially in Sanford.

 

One thing I forgot to mention is that they have reconfigured the waiting room in Sanford. Instead of having the rows of seats facing forward towards the check in counters with one main aisle down the middle they now have long, long rows facing the back windows ( where the rail cars are on the track. This means that people with carts are blocking the aisles so that people can't get down them. They don't have many breaks in the rows to get in and out so it is very difficult when it gets crowded.






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