All about the Autotrain

[denise5374]

Originally Posted by Jennifer S

We were 433 or 443. Were you the couple that dropped your son off from school and had the cute dogs?

I see you are from Philly suburbs- so are we.

no, unfortunately my dog stayed at home Being a 100lb chocolate lab he may have made the other guests uncomfortable, not to mention he would take up a whole bed

We are from Montgomery County, you?

We are planning on using the AT again next August for our trip. H hates (hates) to fly and taking the train is much more relaxing.

[Jennifer S]

Originally Posted by denise5374

no, unfortunately my dog stayed at home Being a 100lb chocolate lab he may have made the other guests uncomfortable, not to mention he would take up a whole bed

We are from Montgomery County, you?

We are planning on using the AT again next August for our trip. H hates (hates) to fly and taking the train is much more relaxing.

I meant pics of their dogs We had the same conversation with them that you did with your fellow train travelers- everyone was so nice on the train.

We are also from Montgomery County. We didnt plan next years trip yet but I would def do the train again.

[FigmentChick]

Thank you guys so much!!!! I really appreciate the quick and accurate feedback. I think we can handle an hour. Hopefully, it will be shorter than that, but if not, I think I can keep hubby busy!!!

And I realize you guys are from Montgomery County, but give some love to the South Jersey girl. lol I'm only 25 minutes from Philly, but you'd never know it with all my farmland!

[denise5374]

Here are some pics of our lower level roomette:









and the bathroom (its really that small!)

[loveysbydesign]

Originally Posted by FigmentChick

Thank you guys so much!!!! I really appreciate the quick and accurate feedback. I think we can handle an hour. Hopefully, it will be shorter than that, but if not, I think I can keep hubby busy!!!

And I realize you guys are from Montgomery County, but give some love to the South Jersey girl. lol I'm only 25 minutes from Philly, but you'd never know it with all my farmland!

Lehigh County here but only 6 miles from Montgomery county, up above Pennsburg and Hereford!

[pwdebbie]

Denise, I'm curious as to whether your brought your own air freshener or was it provided by Amtrak?

[denise5374]

The air freshener was in all the bathrooms.

[Mrs.viv07]

What would you do?
We are traveling with our 2 biys 11 and 2 and were worried about hitting rush hour morning traffic if we leave a planned. 5 am friday morning. The we toyed with the idea of leaving thrusday night after dinner and getting a room in alexandria. We are leaning more towards ,raving Thursday just to avoid lpossibly hitting rush hour traffic / getting lost ect and god forbid missing the train. We figured it would allows us to " sleep" in the day of the train trip since we are not sure how much sleep we will get on the train. I'm trying to find a reasonable hotel that won't break the bank since its and added expense but I don't want anything that is not family friendly. Can anyone recommend anything near lorton that would work or that you have used? Travel sites are not really helping since the review are killing the cheaper ones but I don't want to spend $320 just to sleep.

We are coming from NYC, and would leave around 8-9pm
is it crazy to even consider this? Should we just leave Friday maybe 4 am?

[ClearScreen]

Originally Posted by Mrs.viv07

What would you do?
We are traveling with our 2 biys 11 and 2 and were worried about hitting rush hour morning traffic if we leave a planned. 5 am friday morning. The we toyed with the idea of leaving thrusday night after dinner and getting a room in alexandria. We are leaning more towards ,raving Thursday just to avoid lpossibly hitting rush hour traffic / getting lost ect and god forbid missing the train. We figured it would allows us to " sleep" in the day of the train trip since we are not sure how much sleep we will get on the train. I'm trying to find a reasonable hotel that won't break the bank since its and added expense but I don't want anything that is not family friendly. Can anyone recommend anything near lorton that would work or that you have used? Travel sites are not really helping since the review are killing the cheaper ones but I don't want to spend $320 just to sleep.

We are coming from NYC, and would leave around 8-9pm
is it crazy to even consider this? Should we just leave Friday maybe 4 am?

We just drove from Chappaqua to the Auto-Train about 2 weeks ago. That is about 45-60 minutes north of NYC. We've made this trip before.

We left at 7:00am. We would have arrived in Lorton around 12:30pm with gas/bathroom stops and we were planning to have lunch in Lorton.

Rush hour traffic was fine and not a real significant delay at all. I work in downtown Manhattan so I am very familiar with the traffic and the different routes. I am assuming you are coming from Manhattan. If you are coming from Brooklyn/Queens, add a little extra time. If you are coming from the Bronx, try to avoid the GWB if you can. Otherwise, give a little extra time for the GWB which is a traffic disaster most times of day.

On the day we drove down, there was a fatal truck accident that CLOSED I-95 south in Delaware. The delay was more than 2 hours and we got to the train station about 2:45pm. Last call to load cars is 3:00pm. We barely made it thanks to the extra 2 hours we gave. Some people missed the train completely. We were in a state of panic, but we made it.

So, given that we hit the worst traffic imaginable and still made the train, I see no reason to stay overnight. If you leave NYC by 7:00am, you should be fine. Like I said, we hit a traffic snag that is very unlikely to happen again and still made the train. No reason to leave at 4:00am. If you really want to play it safe, leave by 6:00am.

Enjoy!

[Mrs.viv07]

Originally Posted by ClearScreen

We just drove from Chappaqua to the Auto-Train about 2 weeks ago. That is about 45-60 minutes north of NYC. We've made this trip before.

We left at 7:00am. We would have arrived in Lorton around 12:30pm with gas/bathroom stops and we were planning to have lunch in Lorton.

Rush hour traffic was fine and not a real significant delay at all. I work in downtown Manhattan so I am very familiar with the traffic and the different routes. I am assuming you are coming from Manhattan. If you are coming from Brooklyn/Queens, add a little extra time. If you are coming from the Bronx, try to avoid the GWB if you can. Otherwise, give a little extra time for the GWB which is a traffic disaster most times of day.

On the day we drove down, there was a fatal truck accident that CLOSED I-95 south in Delaware. The delay was more than 2 hours and we got to the train station about 2:45pm. Last call to load cars is 3:00pm. We barely made it thanks to the extra 2 hours we gave. Some people missed the train completely. We were in a state of panic, but we made it.

So, given that we hit the worst traffic imaginable and still made the train, I see no reason to stay overnight. If you leave NYC by 7:00am, you should be fine. Like I said, we hit a traffic snag that is very unlikely to happen again and still made the train. No reason to leave at 4:00am. If you really want to play it safe, leave by 6:00am.

Enjoy!

Thanks so much this really puts my mind at ease. We are actually I rockland county not really manhattan so thankfully we avoid the gwb. We ll probably take the garden state to 95 and then straight down. I had planned 6 am leave time stop for bagels and coffee the have lunch in lorton while killing time.mi figured 5 hours travel time plus an hour for lunch and another hour for delays or whatnot should be good.

[vacationer1954]

We typically say overnight the night before, in Springfield VA. We find more reasonably-priced hotels there than, say, Arlington.

[FigmentChick]

Originally Posted by ClearScreen

We just drove from Chappaqua to the Auto-Train about 2 weeks ago. That is about 45-60 minutes north of NYC. We've made this trip before.

We left at 7:00am. We would have arrived in Lorton around 12:30pm with gas/bathroom stops and we were planning to have lunch in Lorton.

Rush hour traffic was fine and not a real significant delay at all. I work in downtown Manhattan so I am very familiar with the traffic and the different routes. I am assuming you are coming from Manhattan. If you are coming from Brooklyn/Queens, add a little extra time. If you are coming from the Bronx, try to avoid the GWB if you can. Otherwise, give a little extra time for the GWB which is a traffic disaster most times of day.

On the day we drove down, there was a fatal truck accident that CLOSED I-95 south in Delaware. The delay was more than 2 hours and we got to the train station about 2:45pm. Last call to load cars is 3:00pm. We barely made it thanks to the extra 2 hours we gave. Some people missed the train completely. We were in a state of panic, but we made it.

So, given that we hit the worst traffic imaginable and still made the train, I see no reason to stay overnight. If you leave NYC by 7:00am, you should be fine. Like I said, we hit a traffic snag that is very unlikely to happen again and still made the train. No reason to leave at 4:00am. If you really want to play it safe, leave by 6:00am.

Enjoy!

I remember this! I live on the DE-NJ state line (when you cross the DE Memorial Bridge, wave to me....I live along the river on the Jersey side. LOL).

Anyway.....if any of you get stuck in Delaware, feel free to send me a PM. I know the roads like the back of my hand and can get you off the Interstate (I-95), around the ruckus, and back on (preferable, after the DE-MD tolls) with no problem.

I know most everyone has GPS now, but I wouldn't mind helping at all. I also know it's a freak thing that doesn't happen that much, but when it does.....it's a mess!!!

I am so glad you made it down in time for boarding. Hubby & I are going back and forth on what time we should leave for our trip next year. According to my directions, it should take a max of 3 hours to get down there. I don't want to leave before 10, but it might not be my call to make. I'm not known for my patience, and sitting around waiting to board would drive me up the wall.

[shafke]

Originally Posted by ClearScreen

On the day we drove down, there was a fatal truck accident that CLOSED I-95 south in Delaware. The delay was more than 2 hours and we got to the train station about 2:45pm. Last call to load cars is 3:00pm. We barely made it thanks to the extra 2 hours we gave. Some people missed the train completely. We were in a state of panic, but we made it.

We were on the same train and got stuck in the same delay. I95 was closed for about 8.5 hours. It didn't reopen until after 11:30. We left LI around 6am. We hit the backup just before the rest stop. Luckily this rest stop is in the middle of the north and south I95. We pulled in to the rest area and looked up alternate routes. We ended up going back one exit and taking some back road. All in all we lost about 30 minutes... arrived in Lorton around 12:30.

For Mrs.viv07...
You can leave NY around 6am-7am and have plenty of time to get to Lorton.
We have done the trip twice and stop for breakfast when we get to MD. This allows time for DC and Baltimore rush hour traffic to clear.

[dalspot]

If you are coming from NY/NJ I HIGHLY recommend an alternate route down RT 1 to 301 and across the Bay Bridge to RT 50 to 495 and then 95 rather than fighting Baltimore/DC traffic.

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=w...ia=1,2&t=m&z=9

We live in DE and NEVER travel 95.

[ClearScreen]

Originally Posted by Mrs.viv07

Thanks so much this really puts my mind at ease. We are actually I rockland county not really manhattan so thankfully we avoid the gwb. We ll probably take the garden state to 95 and then straight down. I had planned 6 am leave time stop for bagels and coffee the have lunch in lorton while killing time.mi figured 5 hours travel time plus an hour for lunch and another hour for delays or whatnot should be good.

THat's the route we take as well. First, we cross the Tappan Zee Bridge and then pick up the Garden State Parkway south to I -95 (Exit 129 on the GSP).

The rush hour traffic around Baltimore/DC should eased by that time as it will be after 10:00 when you hit it.

Have a great trip!