There’s also rumblings of potentially setting up a new Auto train route from NYC to LA. I have wonder if they’ll do the obvious thing of making a stop in Chicago as well given most long distance Amtrak services stop in Chicago
I live a few hours drive from Chicago and have family in LA, I would love the option to take an autotrain to visit family. The ability to bring my car to visit folks in such a car dependant place would make the cost really make a ton of sense, especially if we opted to only drive one direction and take the train the other direction.
We’re actually planning on driving out this thanksgiving (partly decided by cost and partly by making an added stop to visit family in Arizona which Amtrak and flying would both make extremely expensive in comparison) it also helps that our car was totaled by hail damage this year so since it now has no resale value despite being fairly new and fairly low mileage, there’s just no incentive to avoid putting tons of miles on it anymore. But if we could pay a couple thousand dollars for the experience of riding the rails just one direction, we probably would go that route
Neat!
If anyone else is curious, there’s a lengthy blog post with some photos here: https://www.aboomerslifeafter50.com/travel/is-the-amtrak-auto-train-worth-the-ride-heres-my-take-going-to-florida/
And a Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_Train
At that rate I’ll fly.
There’s also rumblings of potentially setting up a new Auto train route from NYC to LA. I have wonder if they’ll do the obvious thing of making a stop in Chicago as well given most long distance Amtrak services stop in Chicago
https://www.trains.com/pro/passenger/intercity/private-company-ameristarrail-proposes-cross-country-auto-train-service-with-amtrak/
That would be incredible.
I live a few hours drive from Chicago and have family in LA, I would love the option to take an autotrain to visit family. The ability to bring my car to visit folks in such a car dependant place would make the cost really make a ton of sense, especially if we opted to only drive one direction and take the train the other direction.
We’re actually planning on driving out this thanksgiving (partly decided by cost and partly by making an added stop to visit family in Arizona which Amtrak and flying would both make extremely expensive in comparison) it also helps that our car was totaled by hail damage this year so since it now has no resale value despite being fairly new and fairly low mileage, there’s just no incentive to avoid putting tons of miles on it anymore. But if we could pay a couple thousand dollars for the experience of riding the rails just one direction, we probably would go that route