Auto Train North- April 1, 2011 Options

[howardj]

Made our first trip Northbound on the Auto Train.

The Sanford station has now been completed and is very nice. Not quite enough seats for a very crowded train like we had on Friday, but quite nice. Wifi is available in the station.

We arrived at about 11:15 and there were 20-25 cars in line already. The booth started to process passengers at 11:20 and the unloading and check in process was very easy. We were in car 5241 in bedroom D. This car happened to be right outside the station doors and was one car away from the lounge/ dining car, which we like very much. Our attendant, Louis, was excellent, as have been all the other attendants. Food and service at the 7PM dinner seating was great. Filet cooked perfectly, and maybe the best chocolate cake I've ever had!!

The wifi that was in the lounge car only, and not very efficient for more than 2 people at the same time, is now gone completely. Our attendant told us that Amtrak was planing to put wifi in all of the auto cars in the next 60 days or so. Really, that is the only thing that we feel would make this great trip better.

There were 473 passengers, 243 vehicles, including one motorcycle, a total of 47 cars of which 16 were car carriers. We pulled out of Sanford at 3:55 PM and pulled into Lorton at 7:45 AM. We were in our car leaving the station at 9:05 AM.

Another very positive experience and we'll certainly use this service in both directions again next season.

This post has been edited by howardj: Apr 3 2011, 05:43 AM