Site Navigation 

Home
Up
Sleepers
Onboard
Overseas Rail Travel
Airport Rail Links
Steam Trains
Train Companies
Scenic Railways
Eurostar
Motorail
Shipping Services
Plusbus
Bus Links
Railcards
Cheap Train Tickets
Timetables
Wi Fi
Railtours

Motorail - taking your car on the train

British Motorail Trains

'Motorail' was the national brand introduced by British rail in 1966 to sell the transportation of accompanied cars on it's passenger trains.  The first service was introduced in 1955 between Kensington Olympia in London (where a special station was constructed) and Perth in Scotland.  A number of services were developed over the years.  Most recently the services were London to Scottish towns including Inverness, Fort William, Perth, Sterling, Edinburgh and Glasgow, together with Carlisle in northern England.  These services made use of the overnight sleeper trains which still operate on these routes.  There was also a day time service from Bristol to Scotland.  All of these routes ended with the privatization of these services in 1997.

Within England there was an overnight service from London to Plymouth and Penzance on the First Great Western Night Riviera Sleeper service.  Although the train still runs the transport of cars ended in the summer of 2005. 

French Motorail - take your car to Britain on the train!

If you are travelling to or from Europe, consider taking your car by train.  Once you arrive in Calais by ship or Eurotunnel there is no need to continue the long slog south by car, instead there are motorail trains from Calais  to on a choice of two routes both departing from Calais. Take the train to Nice via Avignon and Fréjus, or to Narbonne via Brive and Toulouse.   

French motorail services have cabins, one per car where you can relax for the overnight journey.  Onboard you can relax and arrive refreshed and ready for your holiday at your chosen destination.  There is an onboard cafe with refreshments and the staff are bilingual. 

Taking the train also avoids the French toll roads, wear and tear on your vehicle and the stress of starting your holiday with a long drive.  Additionally departures from Calais are in the evening so you have plenty of time to arrive from the UK. 

You can find out more about the service by visiting  Rail Europe French Motorail website.

French Motorail routes