AutoTrain another reason to love the Ford Ranger.

[Tow7500pounds]

The Ford Ranger is just about the largest vehicle that will fit on Amtrak's AutoTrain. A full size pick up truck will not fit. An AutoTrain leaves Sanford Florida and Lorton Virginia every day at 4pm and arrives at Lorton Virginia and Sanford Florida at 9am. You sleep on the train in either direction, a distance of 811 miles.
Considering that gasoline will run you around $100 and throw in the cost of a motel room, and the AutoTrain looks like a great deal.

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[Jason B]

So, $100 in gas, $100 for motel.
What is the cost of this service for you and your truck? More than $200 is my guess.

 

[Sharky]

rates start at $255.......

 

[DaveP]

I could see the pros. ~1000 mile road trips suck, speaking as someone who has regularly done Denver to Chicago a few times a year for many years now. So if someone/something else can do the driving while you are sleeping, the extra cost may be worth it. Sometimes the convenience is worth the extra money.

Plus, $100 in gas is very conservative. I’d put it closer to $150 assuming $3.50/gal for two 18 gal fill ups with some wiggle room for random expensive gas when there are no other options. Gas out here is still above $4 for mid-grade (89) unfortunately.

 

[Tom_C]

Yeah, my younger self didn't mind road trips. Now? No thank you. If I absolutely needed or wanted my own vehicle, or maybe was only going 1 way, I'd do the train.

 

[Rocketeer61]

Yeah, my younger self didn't mind road trips. Now? No thank you. If I absolutely needed or wanted my own vehicle, or maybe was only going 1 way, I'd do the train.

Right there with you. In 2020 I had to drive from Salt Lake to Tucson 5 times and it made my bad back very angry during and after. The last time I think it got mad beforehand, like it knew what was coming. No thank you is right.

 

[Fordup]

A friend of mine did that auto train years ago. When he got back he told me trains like that are for cattle and cargo. He was afraid to fly but the next time he flew and rented a car that cost less in the end. Plus there was an extra day on the beach he called priceless .

 

[Hootbro]

Did the AutoTrain about 6-7 years ago. Kind of felt like it was a wash. Between the time to queue up getting on and getting off and not really getting a decent sleep with all the clicking, stopping and slowing down along the way, I was hard pressed to find a value or benefit doing it. Depending what group you were in, dinner and breakfast service in the dining car was either way early or late.

 

[Grandaccess]

even if you get 400 miles per tank that's $160
my truck with lift and bigger tires probably wouldn't fit, I sit a lot higher than any F-150 or Tundra I park next to, and in a lot of cases my hood is over the roof of a lot of cars...
I actually enjoy sleeping in my truck at truck stops, I have done that all over this country so even if it was $100 more I would still take my own truck, plus I take my K-9 every time I leave the house

 

[Jake]

I took the auto train in 2023 with my ranger. I had never taken a train before and wanted to check it out. I got a roomette that gets you a dinner in the dining car. It was more expensive than driving even factoring in a hotel and meals. If you went coach it would have been closer in price vs driving. The one advantage is you keep moving through the night so you get to the end a bit quicker. Neat experience and while I probably wouldn't do the Auto train again I do want to take one of Amtrak's western routes.

 

[NotBudule2]

My Ranger is already on a train ?, the

Baby !!!

 

[Retirednavy2010]

The Ford Ranger is just about the largest vehicle that will fit on Amtrak's AutoTrain. A full size pick up truck will not fit. An AutoTrain leaves Sanford Florida and Lorton Virginia every day at 4pm and arrives at Lorton Virginia and Sanford Florida at 9am. You sleep on the train in either direction, a distance of 811 miles.
Considering that gasoline will run you around $100 and throw in the cost of a motel room, and the AutoTrain looks like a great deal.

I used to not mind road trips, Mid Michigan to Florida or vice versa, Florida to upstate NY. I get in the road trip mindset, take off at 5AM get a 20 ounce soda and some corn nuts, Stop for gas, a quick snack about mid Tennessee, stop again mid ohio for snack and gas, just past Detroit a big coffee and make it home by 3 AM. Did the Mich Florida round trip 5 times in 2020 by myself. Take the wife and it is a 2 day trip minimum.

 

[Ronbo]

I have taken the Auto Train on a regular basis for years and it has been hit or miss as far as time savings, money savings or even comfort. The time to queue up to load and then the time to disembark are significant. The roomettes are small and expensive. No cost savings what so ever. Coach seats can be comfortable because they are wider and have more leg room than a plane, but they can still get tiresome on such a long trip. The delays, when the do happen, can be outrages. The last 3-4 times that I’ve taken the Auto Train, it has always been late in departure and even later in arrival. One trip we spent an additional nearly 40 hours stuck on the train due to a crash blocking the tracks, and the freight train traffic always has priority over Amtrak so that inevitably causes further delays as well. Driving can be long, for sure, but you certainly have much more freedom to adjust your travel plans. We would much rather spend a night in a hotel with a real bed and real shower than to have to suffer through a train bed and tiny shower. Our last two trips on the Auto Train were sheer misery with significant delays and then they ran out of food. Not likely to use Auto Train again anytime soon. That’s just us.

 

[LaBalbe]

Back when I was a kid, we were living in Europe, and had a family of friends from NC visit us for Christmas. We took them on a road trip through Europe; two dads & two sons in the lead car, two moms & two daughters following.

At one point, we get on a car train through the Alps, but as Dad paid for both cars, the ladies just got waved through and thought it was a simple toll. We were some of the last cars on, so the first they realized it was when they read the signs on the side saying something along the lines of "please stay in your car while the train is in motion" (it was only like an hour-long trip), and before they had time to react, the train started moving.

The fun part (at least for us in the lead car) is that Dad was supposed to be the last car on our wagon, and Mom the first on hers, but not realizing it was a train, she pulled up too far, and ended up straddling the two wagons. So not only was the car moving on its own, but almost immediately we started hitting turns, and the steering wheel was whipping around on them before they even had time to figure out what was going on. We guys (and I'm including the dads here) had a riot watching the ladies freaking out about it all, but I'm pretty sure the dads got an absolute earful about it later.

 

[RedlandRanger]

I looked into the train (not the autotrain, just a regular Amtrak) - and after a bit of research, it seems pretty popular knowledge that you don't take the train to save money, you take the train for the "experience". In my case, we were looking at taking the train to Utah instead of flying. Taking the train would have been at a minimum $800 a person(general), or as much as $2100 (for a room) and would have taken 38ish hours. Flying was $250 a person and took about 90 minutes.

Some day, I'd like to take the train with a room, but we ended up flying.....

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