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[howardj]

As promised here are some details about our trip north on April 1 and some of the changes we observed. First, we are habitually one of the first dozen or so cars to arrive and line up for check in at the station. I can't help it, I just like to be early. There is no advantage to arriving early other than being confident that you will get your preferred time for dinner. This time when we arrived at 10:35 AM at the station there were at least 30 cars in front of us. The arriving auto train had arrived late and they were unloading cars until about 11:15 AM. Right at 11:30 they opened the check in booth and we received our priority unloading number and went inside to check in. The first difference we saw was at the check in. There had always been 3 seatings for dinner, 5, 7, and 9 PM. Those times were the same for coach or sleeping car passengers. This trip sleeping car passengers had 4 dinner seatings, 4:30, 6, 7:30, and 9 PM. Coach still had 3 seatings at the usual 5, 7, and 9 PM. We chose the 6PM time. There was an announcement at about 5:45 that the 6PM dinner would be delayed and they would announce when to come to the dinner. Turned out to be about 20 minutes late. The problem in the dining car was that since there was no longer a lounge car for people to be waiting in there was no place for the people that didn't wait for the announcement to come to the diner to wait. Since the "free" wine and snacks were no longer offered they sold beer and wine at the table. $6.50 for a single serve of wine. Dinner selections were as usual and the food was good. The serving times after us were also about 20 minutes late each. The servers seemed to be harried and really worked hard to get us finished and out of the car as quickly as possible. In the morning when we got to the diner for breakfast at 6:15 there were only 2 or 3 tables available. Usually at that early hour we're one of the first to arrive. Now, back at the Sanford station. There must've been some kind of accident on either I-95 or I-4 because people were very late arriving at the station and the lines to check in were longer than we've ever seen. We know that there were people in the lines for well over an hour and the lines persisted until well after 2PM. People were NOT happy. Our attendant was named Jose. He was excellent, professional, efficient, etc. We boarded on time at 2:30. Left the Sanford station at 3:53 with a total of 317 vehicles in 26 car carriers and 554 people, 195 in sleeping cars and 359 in coach in 16 rail cars. We arrived in Lorton at 10 AM, 30 minutes late. As I mentioned earlier we took advantage of the priority unloading. Our priority number was 05. Ours was the first car off the train and we were out of the lot and turning onto I-95 at 10:30. Worth every penny!! So, we didn't miss the lounge at all. If anything it cut down the traffic going back and forth before dinner. We liked the earlier dinner time without having to eat at 5PM. We didn't care about the "free" wine at dinner being gone. Everything was just fine. The bottom line is that we still save 950 miles of driving on I-95 and the construction on that road that we still had to travel through going north reminded us of what we avoided by using the auto train. The alternatives to the train don't really work for us so we'll keep the reservations that we already have for our trip south in December and we'll book our trip north as soon as the computer will allow. Sorry for being so wordy. If anyone has questions I'll be happy to try to answer them.