TheVirtualTim
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Tim
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2020
- Threads
- 22
- Messages
- 1,064
- Reaction score
- 1,973
- Location
- Dearborn, MI
- Vehicles
- Mach-E First Edition, Escape Hybrid
I did Michigan to Florida via the Amtrak Autotrain ... or rather tried to. A derailed train (not Amtrak) blocked the route for more than 12 hours causing my train to be cancelled. This was Dec 23 and Amtrak's busiest time of the year for southbound Autotrain users (northbound isn't a problem that time of year). When we realized we couldn't just take a later train, we decided to drive.
So we drove from the Detroit area along the Ohio Turnpike, then the Pennsylvania Turnpike and made it to the Washington DC area (Lorton VA ... where the Autotrain departs). No problem with charging stops.
On the way home we DID get to use the Autotrain.
BTW, by the math, the Autotrain isn't a bad deal. We worked out what it would cost us to rent a car for the duration we were down their and buy two round-trip tickets and we technically saved a chunk of money by taking the train. The train allowed us to sleep through the night. Other than that, it doesn't save you any time. This is because you are allowed to drop off your car as early as 11am. They have a deadline after which they wont load your car if you are late. I think that was 2pm (it may have been 2:30pm). The train departs at 4pm. It arrives at the destination at 9am and they begin the process of unloading ... and it can be a couple of hours before you get your car. If you are one of the first 25 people to request it, you can pay an up-charge ($65 if I recall) and you get priority off-loading. BTW the schedule is identical regardless of direction of travel. They have two trains ... one in Florida (near Orlando) and the other in Virginia (near Washington DC) and they leave at the same time.
If I recall, the cost for the "car" was about $400 but I think that covered round-trip. There's the cost per-passenger to take the train (basically the cost of a coach ticket). Then there's the cost of a cabin (bedroom) but that's not per-person... that's just the charge for the cabin regardless of how many people share it.
Had I decided to drive direct (instead of using the Autotrain) then I'd need to find a way to make it to Dayton Ohio ... and that's quite a long distance without a decent DC Fast Charger. I think there is a slow-ish DC "fast" (slow) charger in Lima Ohio. It's a 50kW charger that shows up on PlugShare. It's just a single station ... everything else around is level 2 chargers. (This is where you get the opportunity to see what it's like to charge a Chevy Bolt ... which pretty much caps out at 50kW charging speeds anyway (55kW is their max).
Once you get beyond Dayton, the locations of DC Fast Chargers is more frequent and you shouldn't have a problem.
So we drove from the Detroit area along the Ohio Turnpike, then the Pennsylvania Turnpike and made it to the Washington DC area (Lorton VA ... where the Autotrain departs). No problem with charging stops.
On the way home we DID get to use the Autotrain.
BTW, by the math, the Autotrain isn't a bad deal. We worked out what it would cost us to rent a car for the duration we were down their and buy two round-trip tickets and we technically saved a chunk of money by taking the train. The train allowed us to sleep through the night. Other than that, it doesn't save you any time. This is because you are allowed to drop off your car as early as 11am. They have a deadline after which they wont load your car if you are late. I think that was 2pm (it may have been 2:30pm). The train departs at 4pm. It arrives at the destination at 9am and they begin the process of unloading ... and it can be a couple of hours before you get your car. If you are one of the first 25 people to request it, you can pay an up-charge ($65 if I recall) and you get priority off-loading. BTW the schedule is identical regardless of direction of travel. They have two trains ... one in Florida (near Orlando) and the other in Virginia (near Washington DC) and they leave at the same time.
If I recall, the cost for the "car" was about $400 but I think that covered round-trip. There's the cost per-passenger to take the train (basically the cost of a coach ticket). Then there's the cost of a cabin (bedroom) but that's not per-person... that's just the charge for the cabin regardless of how many people share it.
Had I decided to drive direct (instead of using the Autotrain) then I'd need to find a way to make it to Dayton Ohio ... and that's quite a long distance without a decent DC Fast Charger. I think there is a slow-ish DC "fast" (slow) charger in Lima Ohio. It's a 50kW charger that shows up on PlugShare. It's just a single station ... everything else around is level 2 chargers. (This is where you get the opportunity to see what it's like to charge a Chevy Bolt ... which pretty much caps out at 50kW charging speeds anyway (55kW is their max).
Once you get beyond Dayton, the locations of DC Fast Chargers is more frequent and you shouldn't have a problem.
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