Yesterday, I returned from a week long business trip to South Florida and being in that weather compared to this made me long for top-down driving.

Thus, my motive for looking into Amtrak's AutoTrain.

You give them your car and they take you and your car to Florida. The train goes from Lortan, VA to Sanford, FL (near Orlando) in about 18hrs. It costs around $230 for a roundtrip coach ticket (which includes your car).

So my question for the board is this: Has anyone taken their S or other family truckster on the AutoTrain? Thoughts? Experiences?

 

Wow thats very interesting,

 

That's a good price. I thought it would be much higher than $230. I've been meaning to visit a good buddy of mine and his family in Orlando.

 

That is a sweet deal!!1!1!

Very interesting

Dan

 

last time i checked it was like $500+. if its only $230 id definately have been on the train long ago. maybe the prices went down.

 

It's $444 for me round trip in June for a Tues-Sun.

The car alone is ~$300 not including the cost of your train ticket.

I'm with yardy, if this was ~$250 I'd def be down for it as it'd be cheaper than flying and renting a car, and I'd have my own car.

 

My family used to always take the AutoTrain for trips to Florida when we were kids. It's actually a fun experience (well, at least when I was 12 it was). I would imagine the S2000 would be ok, one guy put a Viper on it when we took it one year. Unless the timing changed, the train would depart Lorton at 4:30pm and arrive in Florida around 8-9am. The worst part is waiting outside for your car and number to get called as it comes off the train.

 

I would be concerned with front lip clearance on the ramps. For example, it can be a problem on ferry boats when a lot of variation occurs depending on high or low tide. However, I would expect the rail ramp to be more consistent; and hopefully the same on both ends of the journey.

Our cars have clearance problems even with flatbed wrecker trucks and they have to put timbers down to avoid scraping the front lip when getting onto the ramp. But if the Viper did it without damage, the S might be OK, too.

 

Yeah, coach might be a problem. I'd want a sleeper

If the price is that good, I'd definitely do it too!

 

Interesting.... I want to hear how this works out.