When Japan debuted its Shinkansen bullet
train in 1964, it took the world by storm. Up to this point, the idea of a purpose-built
high speed rail system was purely conceptual. Now after years of planning and development,
this futuristic dream had finally become a reality. No other country was even close
to building a system of this caliber. Even the United States, which had
enjoyed immense economic prosperity after World War II, had left
its rail infrastructure to rot. Commercial airlines and national highways
or the new popular ways to travel, and the passenger rail industry
was on the brink of complete collapse. Japan's new achievement was a
kick in the pants to US politicians, who suddenly realized that America
might not be #1 at something. A year later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the High Speed
Ground Transportation Act. This would kick off a decades-long
journey to research and develop high-speed rail projects
across the United States. But in the broader sense, this bill was designed
for new concepts in rail travel as a whole, ones that could move people more efficiently
and reduce the number of cars on the road. One of the first ideas to be studied
was actually European in origin. Specialized long-distance trains,
like the UK's Motorail, allowed people to bring their personal
vehicles with them to their destination. This saved the hassle of driving
hundreds of miles, and gave passengers a chance to relax,
catch some sleep or eat a hot meal. The idea had been kicked
around in the US before, but on the whole, this would be a
new concept to the American public. And in just a few years, it would
become one of the most successful transportation projects in the nation. From 1966 to ‘67, the US government put substantial research
into the car-train concept. In this earliest vision, passengers
would ride in their vehicles inside specially-designed railcars. There would be onboard common spaces
to walk around, relax and eat a meal. But for the most part, folks would sit
and sleep inside their own vehicles, as there would be no standard coach
seating or sleeping compartments. The service was proposed to run
between Washington DC and Jacksonville, Florida,
a distance of about 750 miles. It was estimated that
4 to 5 million people were driving between the
Northeast and Florida each year. If the train could capture
even a small piece of this market, it would be a financial success. But in 1967, the Department of Transportation
faced some severe budget cuts, effectively pulling the rug out
from under the project. In the House Committee's own words:
“If the project is economically feasible, there is no reason why private
industry cannot proceed with it.” In other words, the train was basically
guaranteed to make money, so there was no need for the
government to financially support it. All that was needed now was
a private railroad company to pick up the project and run with it. The problem was, none of them
were interested in taking it on. Passenger service only made up about
5% of the industry's total revenue, while freight provided
much more reliable business. Investing millions of dollars in an experimental
passenger service was out of the question. The study gathered dust
over the next couple of years, until it sparked new interest within
the Department of Transportation itself. Eugene Garfield, a young lawyer and
Assistant to the Secretary of Transportation, found the study lying around in the office. He later recalled:
“It was just reading material.” “I was looking for something to read
that night, so I took the study home.” “When I finished that report, my thoughts were,
‘My God, why didn't someone do this before?’” Garfield soon resigned from his government
position and founded a new company, the Auto-Train Corporation,
on April 11th, 1969. It would ultimately take him two years
to convince Wall Street investors to finance this risky new venture. But by 1971, the company raised
$7 million from the sale of public stock. As other railroads canceled more and more
of their unprofitable passenger trains, Congress finally stepped in. They formed a new government
corporation called Amtrak, which would keep America's passenger
trains running through taxpayer funding. Most private railroads were happy
to pass off this responsibility, and the Amtrak was
launched on May 1, 1971. Meanwhile, Gene Garfield was
putting together the fleet for his Auto-Train company. He ordered brand-new
locomotives from General Electric, and snatched up some of the best
secondhand passenger cars on the market before Amtrak could get them. Among these were nearly all of the full-length
dome cars from the Santa Fe Railway, and nearly all of the half-length
dome cars from Union Pacific. He also purchased a fleet of auto carrier
freight cars from Canadian National. Renovating all of this older equipment
would be far more cost-effective than developing new railcars from scratch. For the route itself, Auto-Train would
follow the original proposal very closely. The northern terminus would be in
Lorton, Virginia, near Washington DC, while the southern terminus would be
in Sanford, Florida, outside Orlando. Sanford was chosen
rather than Jacksonville because this would bring travelers closer
to the tourist hub of central Florida. This was also about a half hour's drive
from a new destination that would open that same year:
a little place called Walt Disney World. In addition to the standard platforms and
check-in facilities, both terminals would have specially designed ramps for staff
to load the vehicles on and off the train. One train would operate in each
direction daily, departing in the evening, running through the night
and arriving the next morning. Aside from a couple of brief stops
for crew changes and refueling, the trains would run the 850 miles
non-stop in about 15 hours. Auto-Train’s primary target audience would
be the middle-aged and elderly crowd. Many retirees traveled from the
Northeast to Florida each winter to escape the cold weather. But this required them to drive upwards
of a thousand miles in each direction. Auto-Train posed a much
more attractive option, as it would remove the stress
and risks of a two-day road trip. And this was only the start of what would
become the company's biggest selling point, and unforgettable passenger experience. While Auto-Train would largely
appeal to an older crowd, Gene Garfield wanted to create
a hip and youthful atmosphere that could appeal to all ages. He was the company's oldest
executive at just 35 years old, and most of the employees
were in their 20s. Using this to their advantage,
they set out to completely subvert the old stereotypes of grumpy
conductors and dirty rail equipment. Auto-Train’s staff would be young, attractive
and eager to assist their passengers. The trains themselves
would be exceptionally clean and decked out with modern interiors. To define the company's visual brand, Garfield
sought the help of employee Caroline Settles, a young designer from Washington DC. When given the task to pick a
color scheme for the company, she chose a striking combination
of bright red and purple. All of the rail equipment was soon
painted in these garish colors, with a large amount of white
to symbolize cleanliness. The staff uniforms were designed
to match this color scheme as well. Settles herself said: “You have to have
something powerful for transportation.” “Purple and red are
something you remember.” “We talked about the feeling we
would like people to have on the train.” “Finally, we coined a phrase — that we wanted
the cars to be ‘conservatively groovy.’” Passengers would enjoy two
all-inclusive buffets on the trip, one for dinner in the evening, and
another for breakfast the next morning. On-board movies would
be screened each evening, and multiple nightclubs would offer
cocktails and live entertainment. The whole idea was that your vacation
didn't need to wait until you got to Florida. You could start having fun
as soon as you stepped on board. To say the public was excited for
Auto-Train would be a severe understatement. Half a year before the trains started
running, thousands of people were already trying to contact the
company to make reservations. The company eventually had to
put out an advertisement, saying: “To the thousands of people who've tried
to call for reservations on the Auto-Train to Florida and gotten the busy signal:
Please don't change your minds.” “Honest, we really want your business.” “But the response has been
beyond our wildest expectations.” Auto-Train’s inaugural run
departed from Lorton, Virginia on the evening of December 6, 1971, and arrived safely in Sanford,
Florida the next morning. Daily service commenced in both directions, and over the following months, every
train was booked solid well in advance. Within just 90 days of its launch,
Auto-Train was already turning a profit. Industry analysts were dumbfounded
by what they were seeing. The public's interest in rail travel
had been dwindling for years. Now Gene Garfield had
created something so popular that it could barely
keep up with the demand. While Auto-Train was seeing immediate
success, Amtrak was having a rough start. The government-run corporation
was supposed to earn a profit, but many people were skeptical
that this would ever happen. Amtrak had to somehow pick up
the pieces of a broken industry and create a cohesive level of service
across a vast nationwide network. Earning a profit on top of this was
an ambitious goal to say the least. From the very beginning,
Amtrak's president Roger Lewis held a special resentment toward Auto-Train. Railroads were not allowed to compete
with Amtrak on the same routes, and there was an argument that
Auto-Train was competing with Amtrak's East Coast services,
like the Champion and Silver Meteor. Technically though, Auto-Train was
incorporated two years earlier than Amtrak. And Gene Garfield made the fair point that:
“We are a different type of service.” “We can't take passengers without
cars or cars without passengers.” “We fill a different type of need.” Clearly unconvinced, Amtrak launched
a new program a few months later in April of 1972, called Free Wheels. Through this program, passengers
who traveled to Florida would be given a free rental car
for a week upon their arrival. In this way, people didn't need
to bring their own vehicles, and Amtrak didn't have to deal
with the logistics of hauling them. It would also be easy to roll out
this program to new cities across their network, without the
need to build any special terminals. Roger Lewis told the press:
“This is not in retaliation to Auto-Train.” “It's our way of keeping the driver
off the road and giving him a chance to relax on the trip to Florida.” Free Wheels was a good idea on paper. But in practice, it was stupidly
complicated for passengers. The promotion was only eligible
with a minimum purchase of tickets from certain departure and arrival points. And once passengers arrived in Florida,
they would have to find their own way from the train station
to the rental car office, and then do it all again
at the end of the trip. Also, Amtrak didn't offer any of the
frills that Auto-Train was famous for, yet Free Wheels somehow
managed to be more expensive. Needless to say, Amtrak fundamentally
misunderstood what made Auto-Train so popular: the fun and hassle-free experience. The Miami Herald wrote: “Amtrak's only attempt to imitate
Auto-Train has missed the point.” “It offered some passengers
free rental car service for a week.” “But there are still too many drawbacks
to taking the regular train.” In December of 1972, Auto-Train
celebrated its first anniversary. With the public demand as strong
as ever, the company announced they would acquire another two trains
to eventually double their capacity. The Orlando Sentinel later wrote:
“Only in the game of Monopoly can owning a railway system
be considered a road to riches...” “[Auto-Train’s] success, after
15 months of operation, should be sufficient proof that
the reported death of rail travel was not only highly exaggerated,
but obscured tremendous potential.” However, just two days later, the Auto-Train corporation would
face its first major challenge. On the morning of March 13, 1973, a southbound Auto-Train was
traveling through Hortense, Georgia. A truck driver approached a rural road
crossing that had no warning gates, and in the dense morning fog he couldn't see
the train approaching at 70 miles per hour. In a fatal misjudgment, the driver
collided with a train’s second engine, causing a catastrophic derailment. The railcars bunched up like an
accordion, and passengers’ vehicles were flung out of the train
into the surrounding swamp. One passenger later said:
“The train began riding rough, so me and my wife hollered to
everybody to get down on the floor.” “After the wreck, I helped get the people
out of my car and walked up front.” “The engine was way off in a swamp
and the second engine was on fire.” The truck driver had been killed on impact,
but only a few people on the train had to be taken to the
hospital for their injuries. The wreck certainly
could’ve been a lot worse, but it was still a massive
headache for the company. Practically all of the passengers’
vehicles were damaged, with many of them being unsalvageable. Auto-Train was insured
for these kinds of accidents, but this was little comfort to
the 300 people who were now stranded in rural Georgia
without their cars. While the collision itself
wasn't Auto-Train's fault, it was a humbling reminder that no
railroad is immune to catastrophe. Despite the challenges, the company
was able to recover quickly, and learned some valuable
lessons from the experience. Even before Auto-Train’s launch in 1971, Gene Garfield had planned to expand
the concept into other markets. There were proposals for a
West Coast version, which would run as far north as Portland or Seattle, and as
far south as Los Angeles or San Diego. There was even stronger interest
in a service between Chicago and Denver, which would capitalize on the
tourist market of winter skiers. But the lowest hanging fruit
was closer to home. Studies showed that more Florida tourists actually came from the Midwest
than from the Northeast. Using the terminal at Sanford, the
company could branch a second route up to the Midwest to capture
this lucrative market. In the summer of 1973,
Auto-Train announced its plans to open a second route
to Louisville, Kentucky. The trip would be longer
than its East Coast counterpart, running 990 miles over the
course of about 22 hours. It would take about a year
to launch the new service. But in the meantime, Amtrak
didn't take the news well. They argued this would illegally compete
with their own Floridian service, which operated on the same route. What's more, Amtrak announced that they were launching an
auto-ferry service of their own, and this was one of the routes
they were interested in using. Now, over the last year, Amtrak
had been quietly planning to compete with Auto Train more directly,
with a new service called AutoTrak. They had originally been
aiming for the West Coast, where auto carriers would be attached
to the existing Coast Starlite service. But these plans ran into legal problems
with the Southern Pacific Railroad, and ultimately went nowhere. With Auto-Train’s new plans
to expand to the Midwest, Amtrak was now dead set on
launching AutoTrak on the same route. The plan was to attach auto carriers to
the Floridian for a good portion of its run, between Indianapolis, Indiana
and Poinciana, Florida. Despite this aggressive move,
Auto-Train’s leaders didn't seem threatened
by the competition. Gene Garfield told the press: “We are far along
with the development of our Midwest service.” “We seriously doubt, however, the Amtrak
passenger auto-ferry service could compare with the deluxe passenger
comfort-oriented services and facilities offered by
the Auto-Train Corp.” Meanwhile, by the end of 1973, the nation's attention was firmly fixed
on a historic gasoline shortage. Americans were suddenly flocking to
alternative modes of transportation, and Auto-Train was praised as one of
the most fuel-efficient ways to travel. The Miami Herald wrote:
“Looking back at it all now, you would suspect that Eugene Garfield and his
associates had a remarkably clear crystal ball.” “The promoters of Auto-Train surely foresaw
the energy crisis, for it is fitting in neatly with their grand design for taking cars off
the highways and putting them on the rails.” As a point of reference, Auto-Train saved
over 14,000 gallons of fuel on each trip, when compared to all of the vehicles
making the drive individually. With numbers that significant, and
with public demand higher than ever, Amtrak and Auto-Train reached a truce. The oil crisis would generate more
than enough business for both of them, and encouraging each other to save
fuel was good PR and good politics. In the spring of 1974, Amtrak acquired a fleet
of auto carriers for their AutoTrak service. They filled these with rental cars and
started performing equipment tests, but this ran into problems immediately. These old freight cars were not designed
for the higher speeds of passenger trains, and they vibrated so violently that
they damaged the vehicles inside. What's more, the tracks between
Indianapolis and Louisville were in such bad condition that
they were borderline unusable. With these logistical problems stacking up, the AutoTrak
project would eventually be shelved indefinitely. Meanwhile, on May 24, 1974, Auto-Train
finally launched its service to the Midwest. The inaugural run was christened
with a bottle of Kentucky bourbon, and set off from Louisville for the first of
many runs between the Midwest and Florida. Even though the feud with Amtrak was over, Gene Garfield had
come out on top yet again. But while expanding the company into a
second market was a major achievement, he already had his sights set
on more ambitious projects. Just a few months after the launch
of the Midwest route, Garfield announced plans to franchise the
Auto-Train concept to a group in Mexico. He and the other executives would provide
their guidance to get the venture started, but the trains would be owned and
operated by a new Mexican corporation, and partially funded
by the Mexican government. The route itself would start in Nuevo Laredo,
just across the border from Laredo, Texas. Over the course of 620 miles, trains would bring tourists down into
central Mexico, ending in Querétaro City. As part of the agreement, Auto-Train
would receive 3% of the gross revenue, and a 10% commission
on each ticket sold. Less than three weeks later, Garfield
announced a new parallel business called Truck-Train, which would be
offered exclusively to long-haul truckers. The idea stemmed from the fact
the Auto-Train's business model could only really work in
high-volume tourist markets. On the other hand, there were far more
commercial truck routes across the US, and the business was far
more consistent year-round. The Truck-Train service would offer
truckers the ability to cover long distances without having to
drive the whole way themselves. Rather than being behind
the wheel all night, they could relax, enjoy a hot meal
and get a good night's rest. While diversifying the company in
these ways was certainly exciting. Garfield and his team were losing
focus on their core business. The Midwest service had only just started, and there were already rumors
that it was underperforming. This wasn't helped when the
company cut back the service to just one train a week in early 1975,
less than a year after its launch. The Tampa Tribune wrote: “The corporation
would not officially comment on reasons, but it is believed insufficient
ridership is to blame.” “Sources close to Auto-Train said ridership on
the northbound Louisville train had been poor while the southbound train
had moderate ridership.” The problem was that the company only
had one train available to run the route. Given the distance it had to cover, it could
only run in each direction on every third day. This awkward schedule attracted fewer riders,
and with fewer riders came less revenue, so the company couldn't
afford more trains. This put a financial strain
on the company, but a glimmer of hope would
come from an unlikely source. In March of 1975, Roger Lewis retired
from the head position at Amtrak, succeeded by Paul Reistrup as
the company's second president. In a stark contrast to Lewis'
aggression in prior years, Reistrup trip was far more
friendly to Auto-Train. Almost immediately, he began
collaborating with Gene Garfield to find new ways to accomplish
their business goals together. Under their new partnership,
Auto-Train’s equipment would be attached to the
back of Amtrak trains. Their ticketing and on-board
services would remain separate, but consolidating their operations in
this way would be mutually beneficial. For Auto-Train. this would open the
door to Amtrak's national network, making it much cheaper to
expand into new markets For Amtrak, this would finally give them
the auto-ferry service they wanted, and would bring some much-needed
revenue to their network. Garfield told the press: “We feel it's
a great, great day for Auto-Train.” “It's a positive step toward
the expansion of our service.” “I envisioned this kind of service
early in the life of Auto-Train, and this gives us the
opportunity to do so.” The two companies would need about a year
to sort out the details and launch the joint service. But in the long run, this would
stabilize Auto-Train’s finances and eliminate the issues they
were facing in the Midwest. On the evening of March 7, 1976, a southbound Auto-Train was
passing through Quantico, Virginia. 15 railcars suddenly came off the tracks, with six of them plunging
into Quantico Creek. Fortunately, all 350 people
on board were safe, and only a few sustained minor injuries. But more than 60 vehicles, many of which
had been submerged in the creek, were badly damaged or outright destroyed. The cause of the wreck was unclear,
but investigators found that: “The marks on the tracks indicate that something
was dragging for several hundred feet.” It was suspected that some of the brakes
had slipped on and locked up the wheels, but the investigation continued
over the following weeks. Less than two months later,
on the morning of May 5, a northbound Auto-Train was
passing through Jarratt, Virginia. This time, 24 auto carriers
jumped the tracks, and again derailed in
catastrophic fashion. There were no injuries among
the 560 people on board, but more than 200 vehicles were damaged. Investigators noticed the striking
similarities between the two events, and identified the cause to be
cracked wheels on the auto carriers. The problem was that Auto-Trains
were unusually long, and their passenger and freight equipment
used slightly different braking systems. According to a writer for Trains magazine: “One engineer with whom
I talked explained, “It's like handling a freight train
with fast-acting passenger brakes.” “Everything must be done
slowly and very carefully.” This put unusually high wear on the
brakes and excessive heat on the wheels, creating hairline fractures and
eventually catastrophic failures. A rigorous inspection found 120 more
wheelsets that were prone to this same failure. Senior Vice President
Richard Goldstein said: “Of these 120, many would have
met the existing standards of the Association of
American Railroads.” “Our standards exceed those.
We're just not taking any chances.” “If there's any question, we take it off.” Between the two derailments,
38 railcars had been damaged, with seven of them being destroyed. With less equipment to work with,
the company suspended the Midwest Service for
the foreseeable future. They now had to cover the repair
costs for the damaged railcars, the manufacture of hundreds of new wheels,
and skyrocketing insurance premiums. If the financial outlook
was concerning before, it was now approaching a crisis. Toward the end of the summer in 1976, four
months after the back-to-back derailments, Auto-Train was finally able
to share some good news. Service to the Midwest
would soon be restored as part of the company's
new partnership with Amtrak. For a trial period of six months,
some of Auto-Train's equipment would ride along on the
back of Amtrak's Floridian. If the trial was successful, the
service would become permanent, and the two companies would start planning
expansions into other parts of the country. Meanwhile, in the spring of 1977, Auto-Train
signed a five-year contract with Disney, making it the official family
railroad of the Magic Kingdom. As part of the agreement, Auto-Train would
promote Walt Disney World in its advertising. In turn, Disney would host
Auto-Train reservation desks at the Disney World parks and hotels. This new partnership was similar to the one
that Eastern Airlines had thrived on for years. As the official airline of
Walt Disney World, Eastern heavily promoted
the park, and had captured much of the Florida tourist
market as a result. So perhaps it wasn't too
surprising just two months later, when Auto-Train and Eastern Airlines
announced a partnership of their own Through a special cross-promotion,
the airline would give their customers the option to ship their
car separately by train. This would capture
a slightly different market of tourists who wanted to get down
to Florida more quickly by air, but still have their car
available after they arrived. While these new corporate partnerships
were creating a lot of buzz, the plans with Amtrak
were falling apart. After several months of
running their joint service, Alan Menell with Auto-Train said:
“We thought both trains would profit from it.” “As it turned out, it wasn't financially
beneficial to either of us.” Perhaps in hindsight, it was a
little optimistic to expect two unprofitable trains to suddenly make money
when they were attached together. The two companies conceded defeat, and Amtrak resumed the Floridian
under its original schedule. Shortly after, in September of 1977, Auto-Train threw in the towel and
pulled out of the Midwest permanently. The Miami Herald wrote: “Among the lessons Auto-Train has
learned is one that other railroads spent decades demonstrating — its tough for
a railroad to make money carrying passengers.” Indeed, about a fifth of the company's
employees would have to be laid off as a result. Despite this grim news,
Gene Garfield told the press: “I've always had faith in the
concept and the company.” “I've always thought this could be a
$100-million company, and I still do.” “We've had a pause. We've had problems.
But you put them to bed and move on.” The one ray of hope in this bleak
outlook was the East Coast route, which was still performing
as well as ever. The company still had a chance
to weather their financial issues, as long as they stayed focused
on their core business and avoided any further disruptions. In the early morning hours,
of February 24, 1978, a northbound Auto-Train was passing
through Florence, South Carolina. One of the two engines
and the front 19 coaches, all carrying passengers,
came off the rails. Miraculously, no one
was seriously injured, and even the passengers’
vehicles were undamaged. Investigators quickly identified
the cause of the wreck. This time it was one of the
axles on the second locomotive, which had snapped as a result
of a manufacturing defect. This wasn't Auto-Train's fault, but the
flaws in the company's management were starting to become more clear. Garfield and the executive
team had never saved up any cash to handle these
unexpected events. So while this was far from the worst
wreck the company had dealt with, it was enough to nudge
them off balance, and begin a long and agonizing
fall into financial ruin. Auto-Train’s shareholders were getting
increasingly worried with the worsening situation. If the company was going to survive, it would
need some steady new revenue — and fast. The cross-promotion with Eastern
Airlines kicked off in January of 1978, and thankfully, it had an enthusiastic
response from the public. But while air travel was proving
to be a useful ally for Auto-Train, it was also on the verge
of a historic shift. This year would see the complete
deregulation of the American airline industry. For the first time, these airlines could set their
own prices and fly whichever routes they wanted. As a result, they were soon fiercely competing
against each other with rock-bottom air fares. Many of Auto-Train’s customers were
now finding it cheaper to fly to Florida, and simply rent a car
once they arrived. The railroad rushed to drop their
prices to be more competitive. But since the rail industry
was still heavily regulated, this process would take a few months. By the time the lower rates were approved, Auto-Train had missed out on
the entire summer tourist season. Things only continued
on this downward trend. By the summer of 1979, Auto Train owed customers
over half a million dollars in unpaid refunds. By 1980, employee paychecks
were starting to bounce. The company was also
taking heat from the IRS, which was demanding $2 million
in unpaid federal taxes. As Daniel Linhardt with the Interstate
Commerce Commission said: “I don't know what auto train's
chances of surviving are.” “Any one of its creditors could drive
them into bankruptcy at any time.” “They could go into involuntary
bankruptcy within days or hours.” Later that same day,
on September 8, 1980, the Auto-Train Corporation
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This would buy them a little
more time to keep operating while working out a plan
to pay off their debts. The US Bankruptcy Court appointed Murray
Drabkin as trustee over the fledgling company. He soon recommended to
the court that Gene Garfield and the other executives should
be dismissed from their roles. Garfield refused to resign voluntarily, so he was ousted from
the company shortly after. In the following months,
Drabkin worked tirelessly to untangle the company's finances
and get them back on track. He said: “There was no way
I could have anticipated that this company was in
as bad as shape as it was.” “I have told people that as a practicing attorney,
one of the happiest days of my life will be the day when I can turn it over to a group of businessmen
with adequate capital who can go from there.” But with no new financing available, and
with over $24 million of unsettled debt, Auto-Train finally agreed to
cease operations for good. The trains arrived in Lorton and Sanford
for the last time on May 1, 1981. After carrying more than
2 million passengers over the course of nine and a half
years, the dream was finally over. Many of the employees had been
with the company since the beginning. To them, this was more than just losing a
job — it was saying goodbye to a family. On the last day, Garfield was out on
the platform hugging and reassuring employees who were just as sad
as he was to witness the end of an era. He said: “My own feeling is that
this day didn't have to happen.” “These trains did not have to stop running.
There shouldn't be a last auto train.” Despite the company's poor fortune, the trains that had been booked
solid right to the very end. The Orlando Sentinel wrote: “The last two trains carried more
than 900 passengers, showing that Auto-Train Corp. did not go broke
because nobody wanted to ride, but because it became a textbook
example of what's meant by, ‘a hell of a way to run a railroad.’” With a new gaping hole
in Florida's tourist market, multiple investment groups
planned their own replacement for Auto-Train over the
next couple of years. However, none of them wanted to take on
the risk of running a passenger service. Instead, they all proposed
variations on the same idea: transporting people's cars with what
was essentially a freight service. Meanwhile, Amtrak appointed its fourth
president, Graham Claytor, in 1982. Claytor was a big believer in the
Auto-Train concept, and reached out to Gene Garfield to discuss
the possibility of reviving the service. Trains magazine later wrote:
“According to Garfield, Claytor called him one day and said, ‘Gene, your Auto-Train
is going to run again, just the way it was.’” “Garfield, an indefatigable self-promoter,
later referred to Claytor as his best friend.” The idea of Amtrak launching a new
Auto-Train was in some ways laughable, considering its multiple
failed attempts in the past. Claytor was faced with a
great deal of skepticism, even within his own organization,
but he confidently pressed on. The Miami Herald wrote: “If Amtrak
can reinstitute an auto-ferrying and passenger service, and at a profit
to boot, then by all means let it do so.” “It would be good for the railroad’s
finances, good for Florida's tourism, and a convenience for certain travelers.
That's a combination difficult to beat.” Amtrak had enough spare
coaches for the passengers, but they ended up buying a good portion
of Auto-Train’s original auto carriers. They also purchased the abandoned terminals in
Lorton and Sanford and started fixing them up. Last but not least, they purchased
the rights to the Auto-Train name itself, to help with brand recognition
and to honor the company's legacy. Amtrak also made an effort to recapture
some of the magic of the original service, with buffet style meals, multiple
domed lounges and on-board movies. Spokesman John Jacobson said:
“We're very excited about it.” “The advantage the Amtrak
has over the Auto-Train Corp. is that we already have the infrastructure
in place to absorb another service.” “We think we can be more
cost-effective because of that.” Indeed, their business as a whole
was not hinging on this one service. If it failed, they could simply cut their losses
and keep operating as they were before. Two and a half years after the Auto-Train
Corporation dropped off its last passengers, Amtrak's Auto Train picked up its first
passengers on the very same platform. The inaugural run departed Lorton
on the evening of October 30, 1983, and arrived safely in
Sanford the next morning. Within a month, it was already
clear the service was a hit. Amtrak's Vice President,
William Norton, said: “I’m happy to report that our results are
very, very, very close to our projections.” “We expect a long and busy season
and we have gotten off to a good start.” Many of the passengers were fans of the
original train, and the general consensus was that Amtrak had done a
fine job at picking up the torch. After its first year of
operation, the new Auto Train was made a permanent part
of Amtrak's national system, And in the coming years, the service
would continue to prove its worth. Not as a passing fad, but as a worthwhile
idea that could stand the test of time.
My maternal uncle founded Auto-Train and based on first-hand knowledge I can tell you this is an interesting and accurate recounting of the rise, fall, and rise again of Auto-Train.
I thought some folks might appreciate this, it’s a pretty interesting documentary on the history of the lately beleaguered Auto-Train, from its founding to its competition with (and later revitalization by) Amtrak.
This creator has some other quality transportation-related videos as well, I highly recommend checking them out!
It's a shame they had those derailments that really hurt it. Some people questioned applying used EMD trucks under GE locomotives, but I don't think that was the issue.