It shouldn't have made any difference as the departure and arrival times were still the same length apart. What they may have been trying to do is avoid some freight trains and commuter trains. Currently the train departs at 5 and arrival is 10 am. Update is departs at 4 and arrival is 9 am so the same length of time for the trip and is what it used to do. Trains have also typically left 15-30 min earlier than scheduled for as long as we've been riding (since 2005). They've always boarded about 90 minutes before scheduled departure time.
What I meant was that even when it switched to 5 pm, we still arrived at the same time as we do for a 4 pm departure, around 11:30 am. So did everyone else who wants to get their preferred dinner slot. We did what we always do, which is check in, get boarding passes and dinner ressie, and then go out again for lunch. They said that although the drop dead deadline was 3, they wanted everyone back by 2 because they were hoping to go out early. And then they pulled out around 4:20. (This was in April).
We live 45 min from Lorton so we go around noon and either buy lunch or take something from home. As for dinner reservations we've always done second seating, but we may do first on our next trip. Once we arrive we wait in the station so have never been told when to be back. We've done around a dozen rt's. We were on in Jan and while we left around 445, we were late getting in on both ends. We buy priority offload so we only wait a few minutes once they start calling.
make sure the drop-down for 'one way, round trip' is at one way, then click auto train. This:
That's what I am doing. Doesn't work on Desktop (Edge and Chrome browsers) or Chromebook. I even got in a chat yesterday and finally gave up on that as well. Cleared cookies too. Won't let me switch directions either (thinking about driving down and coming back on the train).
Have you tried the Amtrak mobile app?
For what it's worth, I just tried it in Chrome.
No, I haven't. Thank you for the suggestion.
All of the train cars for the auto train are two levels and you can be on either the lower or upper level. There is no option to select upper or lower when booking a private room (unlike coach seats where you have to select either upper or lower). If you have a preference, maybe call Amtrak and see if they can do anything.
Do read up on the roomette. They are on two levels as erionm said. The space is VERY small, especially when the beds are down. The backpack will be much more flexible than a small carry on in the available space. There are more bathrooms per room on the lower level of the Autotrain. The stairs are narrow and winding but you will have to use them anyway to get to meals - which are all on the upper level. I hear that it is a quieter ride on the upper level but can't assure you of that because we need a handicapped room on the lower level. We live in Maryland and love taking the train and avoiding the 900 mile road trip. Let me know if you have more questions.
I found plans of the trains and my room will be on the bottom level. No middle-of-the-night steps to deal with. So okay, here are some questions.
We do change into pjs. The shower room has enough space for you to do that comfortably - once the beds are down, the roomette will not have enough room. However, we have found that the shower room is not often occupied.
I change into a tshirt but we do bedrooms now. In a roomette I used to wear shorts also. The only things I don't leave in my room are cash, jewelry and passports (we usually are cruising). I do leave my laptop in it's bag and never had any issues. We don't use the shower in our room as at each end we're either heading home or to a hotel. We live 45 min from the Lorton station and normally are traveling to Cape Canaveral when in FL. Most cars now do not need their alarms disabled because the windows are left down and the cars are unlocked while being transported. My 14 year old Highlander has the system like most that unless the car is locked, the alarm isn't armed. Cars with aftermarket alarms need to be disarmed. So, no reason to even worry about it otherwise.
Thank you for the info about the windows being down. Never thought that would be something they would do. Now, do you carry an extra set of keys with you just in case they lose your keys?
