transportation service for both passengers and their automobiles in the United States, operating scheduled service between Lorton, Virginia (near Washington DC) and Sanford, Florida, near Orlando. The Auto Train offered an alternative to motorists who would otherwise have to drive their automobiles the distance along the East Coast of the United States. For vacationers with destinations at one or more of the many popular tourist attractions of Florida, the Auto Train service offered two advantages: avoid the long automobile ride on busy Interstate 95 in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida have the convenience of using their own automobile upon arrival. From the beginning in 1971, the same year Amtrak began service on purely passenger routes in the United States, a key feature of Auto-Train's new service was the use of autoracks, which were former Canadian National transcontinental bi-level, enclosed autorack boxcars. These were augmented by new tri-level auto-racks built by Southern Iron & Equipment in 1976. The privately owned service became very popular, but after 10 years of operation, and some costly attempts to expand the service elsewhere, such as a schedule between Florida and Chicago, Illinois, Auto-Train Corporation entered bankruptcy, and service ended in April 1981. Amtrak's Auto Train Auto Train service between Virginia and Florida was resumed by Amtrak in 1983. Amtrak, a federally chartered corporation which operates most intercity passenger trains in the United States, continued to use Auto-Train's autoracks as an important portion of its service. These were supplemented with new bilevels built by Johnstown America in 2004 and 2005. In current operation of Amtrak's Auto Train, there are two trains in operation simultaneously. The autoracks normally run on the rear of Auto Train consists, which stretch over a three quarters of a mile, and are a familiar sight on CSX tracks on the east coast. Whittier Shuttle In the mid-1960s, the Alaska Railroad began offering a vehicle shuttle service utilizing standard flat cars and passenger cars. Dubbed the "Whittier Shuttle," it operated in Alaska through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel under Maynard Mountain between a stop just off the Seward Highway near the former town of Portage and the small port town of Whittier, Alaska, which was also a port of call for the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system. As traffic to Whittier increased, the shuttle became insufficient, leading to a project to convert the existing railroad tunnel into a single-lane combination