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''Auto Train'' is an 855-mile-(1376-km-)long scheduled train service for passengers and their automobiles, operated by in Virginia , North Carolina , South Carolina , Georgia , and Florida , and instead of the expense and unfamiliarity of a rental car they have the convenience of the use of their own vehicle upon arrival. The service operates as train 53 southbound and 52 northbound, making no station stops between its terminals at Lorton, Virginia and Sanford, Florida . . ''Jason Trew'']] HISTORY: AUTO-TRAIN CORPORATION The predecessor to Amtrak's ''Auto Train'' was the ''Auto-Train'' of the Auto-Train Corporation , a public Stock Corporation founded in 1971 by Eugene K. Garfield . The company used its own Locomotives , passenger railcars, autoracks, and cabooses, and used the tracks of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac (RF&P) and Seaboard Coast Line (SCL) railroads from Lorton, Virginia to Sanford, Florida . Locomotives, passenger railcars, autoracks, and cabooses The Auto-Train Corporation acquired a fleet of thirteen General Electric U36B Diesel-electric Locomotive s. These were very similar to ones used by Seaboard Coast Line Railroad , the host railroad for most of the route's length. The passenger railcars, including Coaches , Dining Cars , Sleeping Car s, and Dome Cars , were acquired from various major railroads, including Santa Fe , Union Pacific , and Western Pacific . The ''Auto-Train'''s first Autorack s were 75-foot-long bilevels with end doors, carrying eight automobiles each. The cars were originally owned by Canadian National Railway (CN), the railroad that had pioneered the use of autoracks in the North American freight rail industry beginning in late 1957 . The bilevel autoracks were augmented by trilevel ones that were purchased new in 1976 . Unlike most passenger trains, the ''Auto-Train'' included a Caboose at the end, which at the time was required (for technical, legal, and union-agreement reasons) by the string of autorack cars on the rear of the train. Like the rest of the equipment, the cabooses were painted in a red, white, and purple color scheme. A typical train was made up of 30 to 64 cars, pulled by two or three locomotives. Business success and failure The ''Auto-Train'' began operations on December 6 , 1971 . The service was a big hit with travelers. It reported profits for the first few years. Before long, the Auto-Train Corporation's ambitious leadership was looking to expand into other markets. A second service, from Louisville, Kentucky to Sanford, was inaugurated in May 1974 . It operated only until September 1977 , however, reportedly having lost millions of dollars. Two ''Auto-Train'' derailments in 1976 and a major derailment in 1978 shut down service for weeks, and cost the company more than $6 million in lost revenue. Excessively high union labor costs, of the kind that caused grave damage to most of the United States railroad industry throughout most of the twentieth century, made it all the more difficult for the company to withstand these financial blows. Debts accumulated, including millions in taxes, leading to cutbacks in maintenance that slowed operations. Eventually the company was forced into bankruptcy; and though the ''Auto-Train'' retained much of its popularity to the end, it terminated its services in late April 1981 . Several smaller companies scrambled to pick up the ''Auto-Train'''s former customers. A company operating as Auto-Bus carried its customers in buses and their cars in trucks, operating between Pennsylvania and Florida. Another company, Autolog Corporation, offered a service to carry cars by truck between the Northeast and Florida, though not providing transportation for the customers themselves. There were also several companies that hired drivers to take cars individually to their owners' destinations. No one else, however, offered a service quite like that of the ''Auto-Train'', namely transporting a car and its passengers simultaneously to and from Florida. While their service ultimately failed (as so many American passenger train services had previously failed in the decades prior to Amtrak's startup in 1971), Garfield and Auto-Train Corporation had identified a service that people wanted. AMTRAK STEPS IN TO FILL THE GAP After a period of 22 months without service, the service was revived by the National Railroad Passenger Corporation , better known as Amtrak , the corporation that operates most intercity passenger trains in the United States. Amtrak acquired the terminals in Lorton and Sanford and some of the ''Auto-Train'' rolling stock. On October 30 , 1983 , it introduced its slightly renamed ''Auto Train'' service on a triweekly basis. Daily service was introduced a year later. Amtrak continued to use the bilevel and the trilevel is the only scheduled stop on the 855-mile run: at this stop, the train is refueled and serviced and the engine crew and conductors are changed, but no passengers are entrained or detrained. Each train is scheduled to arrive at the other end the next morning at 8:30 a.m., for an average speed of about 52 miles per hour. Today, Amtrak's ''Auto Train'' carries about 200,000 passengers and grosses about $50 million annually. It is notable, especially within the Amtrak system, for the high quality of its equipment and of its customer service. Operating on leased CSX Transportation tracks for the entire distance, it is considered Amtrak's best-paying train in terms of income in comparison with operating expenses. Lorton Terminal Lorton, Virginia is about a half-hour drive south of Washington, DC, just off Interstate 95. Amtrak's new Lorton terminal opened in early 2000 , and features a large, modern waiting area with high glass walls. The station was designed by architect Hanny Hassan. The suspended sculpture in the lobby was designed by Patrick Sheridan . Outside the waiting room are the tracks where passenger cars are set out for boarding. The platform is 1,480 feet (about 3/10 of a mile) long. Sanford Terminal The Sanford ''Auto Train'' terminal is about a half-hour drive north of Orlando. It is an older and smaller facility than the terminal at Lorton. Currently, the ''Auto Train'' loads its passengers on two tracks in Sanford, as no one track is long enough to accommodate all the passenger railcars. Amtrak and the State of Florida are working on plans to replace the facility in Sanford with a new terminal designed to accommodate large numbers of passengers more comfortably. A MODEL FOR SIMILAR SERVICES A North American predecessor to the original ''Auto-Train'' was a service run by the Canadian National Railway (CN) that allowed passengers to bring their automobiles along on selected passenger trains; this service proved unsuccessful. As discussed above, the original ''Auto-Train'' reported profits on the Virginia-Florida route in its early years, but ultimately failed financially. Amtrak's ''Auto Train'' has been relatively economically successful due to the following factors: # A substantial number of passengers are willing to accept a single departure and a single destination point, making route expansion initiatives unnecessary. # A substantial number of passengers are willing to pay a premium price in order to avoid driving and to have the use of their own car at their destination. # A substantial number of passengers find the overnight train travel experience provided on the ''Auto Train'' to be restful, enjoyable, and expeditious. # The parallel superhighways are congested. CANDIDATE FOR CONTRACTING-OUT OR PRIVATIZATION Amtrak services are federally subsidized, and are operated by a corporation that, while technically for-profit, in some ways operates like a government transportation agency. There is a certain amount of debate in the United States over whether Amtrak's services could and/or should be Contracted out to private companies through a competitive bidding process, or even completely privatized. ''Auto Train'' is often cited as one of the most likely candidates for such changes, partly on the grounds that its predecessor the ''Auto-Train'' reported profits during its early years of service. It is debatable whether Amtrak's ''Auto Train'' could, under the government-distorted transportation market conditions existing currently and likely to exist in the foreseeable near future, be made to fully cover both its operating and capital costs, and earn a profit for shareholders on top of that. There is no question, however, that at present the train is satisfying a substantial consumer demand. OTHER ''AUTO TRAIN''-TYPE SERVICES First Great Western in the United Kingdom opererated the '' Motorail '' service between London Paddington and Penzance until September 2005. In , Italy , Austria , and Croatia . These are very popular, with 200,000 automobiles transported yearly and half a million passengers. In 2005, DB AutoZug celebrated 75 years of automobile-and-person-carrying trains. In s, but many no longer allow passengers to travel on the same train as their automobiles. Typically, passengers drop off their car anytime during the day, then use the TGV or other service to reach their destination, where they can pick up the car anytime the following day. The hub of the ''Auto/train'' route system is in Paris at the Gare De Bercy . Three other cities ( Avignon , Narbonne , and Fréjus-St-Raphaël ) also have specialized stations for the car-carrying service; in other cities the service is operated from a normal passenger facility. The automobiles are carried in open railcars, and for this reason the SNCF offers passengers a free car wash in the arrival city. In Austria , several of the regular day and night trains of the Österreichische Bundesbahnen include automobile transport cars. In s for €8 million, and transports 35,000 automobiles a year. In and Temuco . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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