Want To Cruise The Tracks? Take The Auto-Train...
By Winston D. Munnings
11 July 2008
Given the price of gas today, taking your family on a vacation by car could be quite an assault on your wallet, and on your nerves. This is why my wife and I decided on taking Amtrak's popular Auto-Train on a Father's Day visit from Florida to Washington DC two weeks ago. Moreover, and for $773 round-trip (for two adults and our 2004 Nissan) we simply could not pass up this deal.
Since my daughter was in University there (1998 - 2002), we had driven to Washington DC., at least eight times and were familiar with the eighteen hours or so (each way) of doldrums on I-95. We had it down to a science, however, what it would generally cost us.
Do The Math: Firstly, and at $2.75 for a gallon of gas in the good ole days, we needed to fill up at least three times each way. This came to approximately $250 - $300. (Care to chance a guess at what it would have cost today at $4 - $4.15 per gallon?) Add to that a night's stay at a hotel (each way) at a combined cost of around $120. Include breakfast, lunch and dinner for two adults and you're looking at about $100 each way. Now add $300 - 400 for a rental car for seven days or so, as we were never keen on taking our personal car on such a torturous trip. Then, of course, you need some cash on hand for the unexpected.
Each visit to Washington easily cost us between $1,000 - $1,200. (Incidentally, the breakdown above does not include servicing the rental car to and from Washington DC., If you're smart, you'll top off the fluids to and from your destination. Bottom line .... More money! It also does not include any additional expenses such as repairing a flat tire, which we have had to do on two or three occasions.)
Most of all, however, the stress of driving at 70 - 80 miles per hour under very perilous conditions for 4 - 5 hours at a time is deserving of special mention, but how you attach a cost factor to this is beyond my capability.
Now ... fast forward to Amtrak's Auto-train.
Firstly, and since someone else is doing the driving, there is no stress. Further, you can sit back and have a cocktail, two, three, or four and no one is going to pull you over to smell your breath or to give you a ticket. Do you see where I'm going with this?
On the train, you can plug in your computer or a portable DVD player and watch movies to your heart's content. You can read, play games or just simply talk ... again, with a Merlot or Chardonnay in hand. Alternatively, in a car, you certainly cannot (should not) watch a movie especially if you're the driver and, definitely, cannot (should not) drink and drive. At most you can do is listening to the radio and talk.
This is why we thought we would do something a little different this year. Boy, were we surprised! After the recent experience, I doubt seriously I would be driving to and from Washington DC., anytime soon. Probably never again!
Taking Amtrak's Auto-Train was like taking a 'Cruise on the Tracks' ... at least compared to 1986 when we took our first auto-train ride from Lorton, Virginia. Then, this new mode of transport (traveling with your car on the same train you're taking) was a new phenomenon and not at all as we remembered it.
What an experience we had and yes, it was as if you were on a cruise line with the train tracks substituting for the Ocean. Check this out:
My wife and I live in South Florida. We had to drive to Sanford, Florida (about 290 miles north on the Florida Turnpike) to pick up Auto Train 52. Driving time was approximately four hours. So what! Some folks fly five hours from California, for example, to pick up their Caribbean Cruise from Miami. Is there really a difference? "But you're just taking a train ride to Washington DC., not a mega fourteen story high Cruise to The Bahamas" some would say. While I agree, a trip to The Bahamas might be much more exciting than a trip to the nation's Capital, the analogy of 'cruising on the ocean' and 'cruising on the tracks' is sticking, as you'll soon learn.
So we got into Sanford, Florida around 1:30 pm and got to see them load our car onto one of five specialty train cars equipped to carry 15 - 20 automobiles per train car. Then we checked in (as if you are about to take a Caribbean Cruise) and waited in the lounge area for our 4 pm departure. (Incidentally, on Auto Train 52 there were 395 passengers, 165 cars in tow and about 41 separate train cars needing the trust of two locomotives to take us to Lorton, Virginia overnight at a comfortable speed of between 65 - 70 miles an hour.)
While we certainly did not have a three-piece calypso combo to entertain us in the small lounge area, the excitement of a train ride was nonetheless still evident as families hustled about readying grand parents and children for the experience ahead.
All Coach Seats are assigned (like your cabin on the cruise ship) and we selected our dining time from the following options: 5pm - 7pm or 9 pm. That's right; dinner is included along with a continental breakfast the following morning. Moreover, you also get to watch a movie, if you like, during the evening hours in the Lounge Car before or after dinner.
Up to this point, this is all courtesy of Amtrak's Auto-Train and has absolutely nothing to do with your own personal entertainment and comfort as you sit back during the early hours after dinner while someone else is doing the driving. I call this 'Heaven' because there is nothing like a train ride to relax the torso while the Mrs. and you break out the Merlot (and munchies) for a relaxing sip.
So we went for our nine O'clock dinner seating on the first leg of our trip to Washington DC., We were seated with two fascinating young ladies each were returning to the Washington area and each had her own story as to why they were leaving Florida. Great conversation I thought. Incidentally, at dinner, I had the Beef Goulash (which was to die for), and my wife had Tilapia and all the (FREE) Chardonnay one could drink.
After dinner, we stopped in the lounge car for a nightcap before returning to our comfortable seats three-train cars ahead. It was now about 10:30 pm, which, for me, is much too early to go to sleep but not too late to have a second nightcap (without the Mrs. this time) which included a movie we watched on my trusty old 8" DVD player.
Seven hours later (8 am) we arrived at the Lorton Station and within an hour, we were in our 2004 Nissan headed for Washington DC., just an hour away.
What a glorious eighteen hours onboard Amtrak's Auto-Train. We had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed our train ride to Washington. True there were no Limbo sticks or closing out of the Disco on Amtrak's train No. 52, but all said and done, it was quite an experience and one, which we can hardly wait to do again.
(The return trip to Florida was just as exciting ... but a little more educational as you will read in Part II.)
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