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TransitRider

TransitRider

Service Attendant
Joined
Sep 30, 2009
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107
Just a FYI, recent Monday, Today (Tuesday), Wednesday and Thrusday Amtrak Auto Train are sold out including the bedrooms.

Snowbirds now returning back up north ... My friend confirmed me that one bedroom went for $900 last minute. $900?
 
$900. Typical believe it or not. The lowest I've seen is around $600 and that was 11 months before travel. But my thinking is that it is due to a few extra pillows and wider sheets in the bedroom. Also a private shower. Someone once said to me that they took a 30 minute shower in Bedroom B of a viewliner I laughed. A tank of water would be drained after a 30 minute shower.

Steve
 
Acela150 said:
The lowest I've seen is around $600 and that was 11 months before travel.
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You're off by half:

auto_train_low_bucket.PNG
 
My wife and myself have taken the AutoTrain to Sanford and back many times. The room usually averages around $300 each way and the post by Ryan confirms this. Yes full trains and last minute bookings will raise the price in the sleepers considerably so if you want a reasonable fare book 6 months out or take the train during the slow months. The snowbirds return at the beginning of spring and this always fills up the trains going North but going South they should be far from full. I believe that January going down and March returning are busy times. Also watch for the rush of college students going south in early Sept. and returning in early June.

The lightest traffic on the AutoTrain that we've ever seen was in mid December. By this time everyone is getting ready for the holidays, the snowbirds are in Florida, the college students still in school and not many people are traveling.
 
dlagrua said:
My wife and myself have taken the AutoTrain to Sanford and back many times. The room usually averages around $300 each way and the post by Ryan confirms this. Yes full trains and last minute bookings will raise the price in the sleepers considerably so if you want a reasonable fare book 6 months out or take the train during the slow months. The snowbirds return at the beginning of spring and this always fills up the trains going North but going South they should be far from full. I believe that January going down and March returning are busy times. Also watch for the rush of college students going south in early Sept. and returning in early June. The lightest traffic on the AutoTrain that we've ever seen was in mid December. By this time everyone is getting ready for the holidays, the snowbirds are in Florida, the college students still in school and not many people are traveling.
Click to expand...
This has been our experince as well with mid-December trips on the AutoTrain. In fact I had some relatives book a trip only two weeks ahead of their departure for a mid-December trip and they got the lowest bucket.
 
dlagrua said:
My wife and myself have taken the AutoTrain to Sanford and back many times. The room usually averages around $300 each way and the post by Ryan confirms this. Yes full trains and last minute bookings will raise the price in the sleepers considerably so if you want a reasonable fare book 6 months out or take the train during the slow months. The snowbirds return at the beginning of spring and this always fills up the trains going North but going South they should be far from full. I believe that January going down and March returning are busy times. Also watch for the rush of college students going south in early Sept. and returning in early June. The lightest traffic on the AutoTrain that we've ever seen was in mid December. By this time everyone is getting ready for the holidays, the snowbirds are in Florida, the college students still in school and not many people are traveling.
Click to expand...

Actually, i can understand the possibility of paying a lot of money. I just went to the AMTRAK site and tried booking bedrooms to and from Lorton departing on 24 December and returning the first week in January. The bedroom going south is currently priced at $532; the northbound bedroom at $657
 
Lightest load I've ever found on the Auto Train was in January 2009. Train 52 had less than 150 people IIRC. That's about 2 Superliner coaches. And this tiny load was spread across 4 coaches and 6 sleepers, as well as 2 lounges and 3 diners. In contrast to that, there were so many people on 53 on the trip south, the crew in the sleeper diner took over half of the lounge to increase seating capacity. I'd seen them do that for the first come-first serve continental breakfast before, but never for dinner, which is spaced out over 3 seatings.
 
Hanno said:
dlagrua said:
My wife and myself have taken the AutoTrain to Sanford and back many times. The room usually averages around $300 each way and the post by Ryan confirms this. Yes full trains and last minute bookings will raise the price in the sleepers considerably so if you want a reasonable fare book 6 months out or take the train during the slow months. The snowbirds return at the beginning of spring and this always fills up the trains going North but going South they should be far from full. I believe that January going down and March returning are busy times. Also watch for the rush of college students going south in early Sept. and returning in early June. The lightest traffic on the AutoTrain that we've ever seen was in mid December. By this time everyone is getting ready for the holidays, the snowbirds are in Florida, the college students still in school and not many people are traveling.
Click to expand...
This has been our experince as well with mid-December trips on the AutoTrain. In fact I had some relatives book a trip only two weeks ahead of their departure for a mid-December trip and they got the lowest bucket.
Click to expand...
November travel last year was very reasonable also. We were able able to receive the lowest bucket for the vehicle accomodation charge on both directions, coach seats for the southbound trip, and a roomette for the northbound trip.

I am currently in snowbird status and plan to return north to Harpers Ferry in early to mid April. Prices on the Auto Train were way too high for my pocketbook in mid January for the trip south. Needless to say the trip north in a few weeks will be on I-95.
 
Amtrak839 said:
Lightest load I've ever found on the Auto Train was in January 2009. Train 52 had less than 150 people IIRC. That's about 2 Superliner coaches. And this tiny load was spread across 4 coaches and 6 sleepers, as well as 2 lounges and 3 diners. In contrast to that, there were so many people on 53 on the trip south, the crew in the sleeper diner took over half of the lounge to increase seating capacity. I'd seen them do that for the first come-first serve continental breakfast before, but never for dinner, which is spaced out over 3 seatings.
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It's actually quite common to see them serving dinner in the cafe car, I've sat there at least 2 or 3 times over the years. In fact the Auto Train cafe cars were specially modified from Superliner I dining cars to serve in the dual role of cafe car and overflow dining car seating. Even the backup Sightseer lounge car that substitutes from time to time was rebuilt to allow for overflow seating.
 
The Auto Train is actually a fine example of why Amtrak pricing is working well, a conversation that we were having in another topic recently. A busy Auto Train runs with 40 Bedrooms, that's just Bedrooms not roomettes, and yet Amtrak is still able to sell out the Bedroom category despite the high buckets being over $900 for such a short trip that only includes one full meal in the dining car and one light breakfast.
 
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