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The train makes one stop around midnight in South Carolina. Head HERE to join our private, stepmoms-only Facebook group! Also at check-in, you will be asked what time you want your berth set up for sleeping.

So the earlier you check in, the more choice you’ll have about your dinner time. There are several dinner seatings – you receive your dinner tickets when you check in and the seating times are first come, first served. Passengers can begin to board at 2:30 p.m. You then proceed into the station with your carry on bags and wait to board the train. The vehicles go from there to the autorack ramps, where they are loaded. Each car has a unique number assigned and affixed to the side of it with a big magnet. and cars are allowed to proceed into the vehicle staging area. The process goes something like this: Station gates open at 11:30 a.m. You can book tickets on the Amtrak site, which also has all the information you need about boarding and the vehicle requirements. In 2017, it ferried almost 230,000 riders between Lorton and Sanford. By 1981, however, a couple of derailments had decimated the finances of the corporation and the company closed its doors.Īmtrak revived the train in 1984 under the slightly changed name “Auto Train” (without the hyphen) with service three times weekly, expanding to daily service after the first year. By 1974, the corporation established a second route between Louisville, KY, and Sanford, FL. Service began in 1971 along the same route as today’s train and was initially very popular. Garfield, who once worked for the Department of Transportation, founded the Auto-Train Corporation in 1969. The Auto Train has an interesting history. If you’re interested in digging in more, there’s a book all about the Auto Train and its storied history. At approximately three-fourths of a mile long, it is also the longest train in the country. It operates between Lorton, VA and Sanford, FL and is the only one of its kind in North America.

The Auto Train, operated by Amtrak, is an 855-mile long train service for passengers and their cars. If you’ve ever wondered about taking the Auto Train, here are some things we learned from our trip: The Basics Also, I was beyond thankful not to have to sit in stop and go traffic for hours on end. I did and to my surprise, I ended up having a really great time. She didn’t think it sounded “fun” (neither did I, really).Ĭraig asked me to keep an open mind about it, especially in front of the kids. We brought two of the kids, our twelve-year-old, who was every bit as excited as Craig, and our thirteen-year-old, who was skeptical, to say the least. For more information about what that means, click here. I was not as enthusiastic, to say the least, but faced with the prospect of dealing with I-95 on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I reluctantly agreed.

As we made our travel plans to drive from Northern Virginia to Florida for Thanksgiving to see family, my husband Craig floated the idea of driving down and then returning on the Auto Train.