The Sanford Station is under heavy construction. They are working on the tracks closest to the usual boarding platform so they had the sleeper cars on the #2 track along with the crew car and the dining car and what they called the "Satelite Lounge" on that track and they had all of the coach cars on another track on the other side of the station. The communication was not very good and people were mostly in the wrong place and had to be re-directed to the right cars. They had a set of ramps set up stretching across the track to the platform for track #2 to reach the sleepers.
They started the boarding process at 2:35 PM and the train pulled out after hooking up with the coach cars and the auto carriers at 3:39 PM. The hookup portion was very smooth and really was done much more quickly that thought it would. We were in Bedroom C on the 5241 car. The room attendant was Johnny. We hadn't seen him before and he really did a very fine job. There were 577 passengers 348 in coach and 229 in sleepers. There were 323 vehicles and 1 motorcycle. There 33 auto carriers and 17 passenger rail cars.
We were well ahead of schedule but we were slowed by the commuter rail traffic. Still we pulled in to Lorton at 8:57 AM We were allowed to de-train at 9:03 AM and ours was the first car off the train at 9:20 AM.
Dinner was done in 4 seatings, 4:30, 6:00, 7:30, and 9 PM. Service was very rushed, food was not very good, food was not very hot.The cost cutting and loss of amenities from when we started taking the auto train 6 years ago is really dramatic. It's not nearly as pleasant as it was and the overall quality of the crews isn't what it was. If this is an example of the best that Amtrak has no wonder they're in trouble. The Sanford Station staff in particular were quite nasty. They were complaining to anyone that would listen that they were supposed to be " on lunch" instead of handling the arriving passengers that were leaving the station and the new passengers that were checking into the station. Long lines to check in to the sleepers and only one person on the counter.
We may rethink driving back north next year instead of using the auto train. As much I hate the 950 miles on I-95 that are saved with the train I'm not sure it makes sense any more. Amtrak certainly doesn't care about the passengers on this route any more.