Check-in was efficient and pleasant although the Florida weather was wet and downright cold.....low 40's.....for that area. The girl numbering incoming vehicles was dressed like an eskimo! Boarding the train and finding our warm room (E) in the 5240 sleeper was a welcome. I liked the all bedroom superliners built specifically for the Auto-Train and I also thought that the eight dining room tables in the end of the lounge car was a great idea......that's 32 extra passengers who can be served per dinner seating.

While waiting to depart we spotted outbound train 1 (Sunset) departing Sanford about 30 minutes late. The southbound Silver Meteor also passed by running about four hours late. We learned later that this was because the Silver Meteor had struck a car that was going around a lowered gate the night before in Rocky Mount, NC.

We departed about 10 minutes early and took the 5pm dinner seating. Service was clearly a level above what one finds on other Amtrak trains. Nowhere near the level of service first class passengers receive on VIA's Canadian, however. (Hold that thought, we're coming back to the Canadian in a minute).

My wife and I were both battling the colds we caught over the holidays (from HER family thank you very much!) and turned in for the night around Savannah, GA. I slept soundly for awhile and completely missed the service stop in Florence, SC. I woke up around 3am to find the train NOT moving.

I dozed.

I woke up. We were moving VERY SLOWLY. There is just something about a passenger train moving under a CSX speed restriction.

I dozed.

I woke up about 4:15am and recognized downtown Fayetteville, NC outside my window. We passed through slowly and there were a couple of inches of snow on the ground. Rare. I lived in Fayetteville for four years and saw snow there once in that time.

I fell asleep again......only to be awakened by the PA at 7:00am informing us that we were stopped just south of Rocky Mount, NC (We had been stopped since 6:00am and didn't move until 8:15am) and that we were well behind schedule due to frozen switches.

OK.....back to the Canadian. My wife and I rode from Vancouver to Winnipeg in April. Two nights, 1,500 miles. We were on-time or early at every station in spite of running through an Albertan blizzard at speeds of 79mph (an AWESOME sight from the rear dome!!!!) most of the second afternoon.

I told my wife at the time that if we ever encountered similar weather aboard an Amtrak train running on CSX rails that we would move at 10mph for an hour or so, grind to a stop, sit for an hour, and then be told that we were being delayed by 'frozen switches'.

Ironically......it had happened exactly the way I suggested it might.

Maybe CSX ought to look into whatever kind of switches Canadian National is using. Maybe double-tracking the old ACL south of Richmond, VA again would help too.

So.....we crawled north at restricted speed until we crossed into Virginia and got out of the snow. Having seen this route many times from the Carolinian and Silver trains it was interesting to get an unexpected daytime look from a superliner lounge car.

We paused at the Richmond, VA Amtrak station to pick up a fresh crew (ours was close to going 'dead on-the-law') about 11:30am. We arrived in Lorton at 1:15pm (that's just shy of 5 hours late for those who are counting) about 45 minutes after they broke down and served an unplanned lunch of canned beef stew and leftover chicken nuggets from the children's menu the night before.

So......I was pleasantly surprised to see that many 'regular' people use Auto-Train. It isn't just elitist types who winter in Florida and don't want to drive the caddy all the way. LOT'S OF FAMILIES. LOT'S OF AVERAGE JOES. LOT'S OF COUPLES IN THEIR MID-THIRTIES TO MID-FIFTIES. I was also pleased by the effort Amtrak makes to offer attentive service on this train. Makes you wonder why they can't do it consistently on the Capitol Limited or Silver Star or the California Zephyr which was entirely mediocre when I rode it in June, etc.

The whole time-keeping thing though.....and yes I know CSX can't control the weather but they come off as a railroad totally unprepared for just about anything and all Amtrak trains which operate over their system are suffering for it.

The Auto-Train experience was enjoyable (once we got past the lateness and just went with it) BUT it was not special enough to warrant going out of my way to do it again in the future. It wasn't good enough to win my wife over as a regular rider. (She has allowed that she would be up for another trip on VIA.....just say the word.) I'm willing to endure a 12 hour late Sunset Limited. My wife is not. I'm willing to be herded like a Holstein in Chicago Union Station. My wife is not. I'm beginning to miss the daylight ride through Virginia on the Cardinal and would ride it again in an Amfleet coach instead of a superliner. My wife would not. So......my future Amtrak trips (at least through mid-2006 I guess) will be coach or roomette solo trips. The added expense of making an Auto-Train trip can, in my mind, be justified only when traveling with more than one person. Otherwise, the Silver Star does the same thing and I can catch it in Raleigh or Southern Pines without having to go to Lorton or Sanford first.

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David Pressley