Auto-Train Corporation The original
Auto-Train operated on
Seaboard Coast Line Railroad and
Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac tracks. It was operated by
Auto-Train Corporation, a privately owned railroad carrier founded by
Eugene K. Garfield. Garfield had worked at the
U.S. Department of Transportation, which had funded a study of the practicality of an automobile-train service. He then resigned and later used the study as the blueprint for his enterprise. The company provided a service unique in the country: scheduled rail transportation for passengers and their automobiles between
Lorton, Virginia, near
Washington, D.C., and
Sanford, Florida, near
Orlando, Florida. The Auto-Train Corporation used its own
rolling stock, painted in red, white, and purple. The typical train was equipped with two or three
General Electric U36B diesel-electric locomotives;
double-deck auto carriers;
streamlined passenger cars, including coaches,
dining cars, and
sleeping cars; and full-
dome cars; and a
caboose, then an unusual sight on most passenger trains. The engines were
freight types, purchased at much lower cost than passenger types. But they lacked
steam generators, so heat to the passenger cars was supplied by steam-generator cars. Passengers rode in wide
coach seats or private first-class
sleeping compartments, and meals were served in dining cars. Their vehicles were carried in enclosed
autoracks. The company's first autoracks were acquired used, and started life in the 1950s as an innovation of the
Canadian National (CN) Railroad. The CN cars were huge by the standards of the time: each 75-footer (23.86 m) could carry eight vehicles, which were loaded through doors at each end. The
Auto-Train began running on December 6, 1971. It was immediately popular with the traveling public and at first enjoyed financial success as well. In
fiscal year 1974 the company turned a profit of $1.6 million on revenues of $20 million. In May 1974, service began over a second route between Florida and
Louisville, Kentucky, and the company was mulling additional service between
Chicago and
Denver.
Amtrak are lined up at the left, with autoracks visible to the right. Amtrak planned to introduce a Midwest–Florida auto train service called "
AutoTrak" in 1974. Running between
Indianapolis and , it would have competed with Auto-Train's Louisville–Sanford service. Amtrak built a terminal at Poinciana, acquired 20 auto-carriers, and ran a test train loaded with rented autos on April 30 – May 1, 1974. In practice, however, the trains usually run late. In May 2021, for example, only 31 percent of Auto Trains arrived on time, mostly because of interference by freight trains that have preference over much of the route. Smoking was banned on the
Auto Train on June 1, 2013; it had been banned on most Amtrak trains since 1994 and on every train except the
Auto Train since 2004.
Auto Train operates on the same route it and its predecessor have always used; the entire route is owned by
CSX Transportation except for the southern , which are owned by
SunRail. == Ridership ==