Some of you need to look up the history of the Auto train. It was a private business that Amtrak took over. The private busines went belly up when it expanded to Louisville Kentucky The facilities are in Lorton Va just south of the Beltway. In order to run any place else they have to cost justify it with Congress which wants Amtrak shut down. They would have to get clearance from the private railroads to run elsewhere in the US and north of DC they would need to do an Engine swap out to run on the Northeast corridor. Also they would need to build a large facility like they have in Lorton to load and unload plus service the train. In 2006 they made 50 million running the train and it cost 61 million to run it. In 2011 they made almost 67 million on the run carrying 250,000 passengers and vehicles. They have looked at other routes but again Congress controls the purse strings and people want Amtrak shut down because it is only for people loving government subsidies.
The story goes that the autoracks for the Autotrain won’t fit the northeast clearances is not true. Just across the Hudson River in New Jersey you will find numerous auto loading facilities for CSX and NS. If all parties involved attitude towards Amtrak was positive and AutoTrain was able to reach New Jersey it would be successful.
And why not service to/from Chicago and/or Detroit?
Just saw 52 at Folkston. Additional coach and auto haulers…Total 49 cars
Extend the service to the NJ - NY area ASAP. The worst part of driving I-95 is From here to the DC area. Please hurry and don’t give me the catenary excuse!!!
what also helped to bankrupt the original ‘auto-train’ was very high operating crew costs. I worked for SCL in the early-mid 70s and occasionally ‘worked’ the Jacksonville-Thomasville, Ga. leg of the midwest-Florida auto-train. 5 crewmen per district, doing the standard ‘100 mile day’ crew district pay rate. that’s a lot of crew expense for a thousand mile run. doesn’t the present day Auto Train only have one operating crew change, in Florence?
R A PAGE Jr… we just left Folkston about 6:25. on Jan 6. Do you mean to tell us we missed the autotrain by just a couple minutes???
Maring and Bollin say that there are auto rack cars in northern New Jersey, so that means that Auto Train can run there also. Question: Did these auto racks travel up the Amtrak Northeast Corridor? I don’t think so. Conrail raised the clearances for its east-west main line across the state of Pennsylvania. The NEC main line has clearance issues with the Baltimore tunnels, 30th St. station in Philadelphia and the catenary. C’mon railfans, think things through!
My understanding of clearance problems to the North East are both the tunnel clearances into Union station from the south and the former PRR tunnels under Baltimore, not the CSX tunnel as AMTRAK does not currently use the latter and it also would have clearance problems. If there was a way through DC, then a terminal in Maryland would have made more sense for Northeners than Lorton, VA.
My understanding of clearance problems to the North East are both the tunnel clearances into Union station from the south and the former PRR tunnels under Baltimore, not the CSX tunnel as AMTRAK does not currently use the latter and it also would have clearance problems. If there was a way through DC, then a terminal in Maryland would have made more sense for Northeners than Lorton, VA.
The majority of the comments here show quite clearly why railfans should never be allowed to have any decision making capacity concerning where Amtrak runs its trains!
Keep yor eyes open for a privately funded Passenger Rail Service from Chicago to Miami. MiGo Rail will not have auto carriers, but will work with a car rental company to have a fleet of rentals available at key stations that would make entraining one’s vehicle not cost effective for stays two weeks and under.
Keep yor eyes open for a privately funded Passenger Rail Service from Chicago to Miami. MiGo Rail will not have auto carriers, but will work with a car rental company to have a fleet of rentals available at key stations that would make entraining one’s vehicle not cost effective for stays two weeks and under.
Traffic continues to be a growing problem on I-95 all the way down the coast between DC and Florida. Major construction work and constant traffic congestion plague I-95 in northern Virginia all the way down to Richmond. North Carolina is considering tolls on I-95 at the Virginia border and possibly elsewhere, which will all go to finance the new roads they are building elsewhere in the state while letting its exisiting roads crumble away. I-95’s road condition is in horrible shape in South Carolina; they are getting what they pay for with a cheap gas tax there, and like North Carolina, would rather funnel the money to new road construction, some of it toll roads that are not needed, while I-95 remains a bumpy bottleneck of two lanes on each side all the way between north Carolina and Georgia. In Georgia, I-95 has been widened to three lanes on both sides, but I-95 remains a perpetual construction zone as every little bump has to be smoothed out almost every other year or two with another later of asphalt. Then there’s Florida! Yes, is there a direct interstate to the tourist area in Orlando from the state line? Not really, it kind of depends where you want to go, and good luck finding the right route to anything west of Orlando, including Disney World or the car driving haven of Tampa Bay. Oh, you can take I-4 from Daytona Beach, but then that means going the long way and having to squeeze through Jacksonville, or you can take US-301 to Ocala and drive through the speed trap of Lawtey; and a reminder, the first syllable of that town is very important to them!
Steven (above) is exaggerating matters. Re accessing the attractions area in Orlando from the north, the “squeeze” south through Jacksonville on I-95 is a breeze unless you choose to do it in the afternoon rush hour. The drive south on I-95 to the connection with I-4 is the shortest route to Disney, etc. time-wise. It’s ridiculous to take I-10 west from I-95, to Baldwin, and then south down US-301 through three, not one, speed traps (Lawtey, Stark, and the worst of them, Waldo FL) to Ocala and then what? I-75 south to the FL Turnpike, east to I-4, and Disney? That’s crazy.
I’ve driven frequently from Orlando FL to NC (Raleigh/Cary) and back. The entire drive is pretty straightforward (70+ MPH and 3 lanes) EXCEPT for most of SC and most of NC. Of course, every major city has traffic at popular times of day.
The updated I-95 route through JAX is great (they reduced the sharp hair-pin curve) and is WAY better than the 295 bypass.
I4 construction to widen the remaining 2-lane each way to 3-lanes each way requires some patience and care though.