Was chatting with a colleague the other day about driving long distances Vs taking the train and possibly hiring a car at the other end then we started talking about the Eurotunnel and how it would be good if it could go to other places not just in the UK but all over Europe, you could bord the train in Manchester with your car to London or different locations maybe with a few changes or go to Frankfurt or Milan etc, load the car up drive to the station on to a train then relax and then arrive at your destination without having to drive hundreds of miles. Thing is could or current infrastructure handle it or would we need all new train lines bridges etc and would it be feasible?

In some ways, it is a nice idea, but I don't really think it is feasible or practical. Look at the size of the car the average person drives these days and consider that it will, in most cases, only carry 5 occupants. Now how many passenger seats could fit in the space that car would require within the train?, 20?, more?.

Long ago BR ran several such routes in the UK using normal rolling stock but not like Eurotunnel. Cars were loaded into wagons by staff and the passengers travelled in carriages. Some routes were aimed at the family holiday traffic so each car was allocated its own passenger compartment (in the days before open plan carriages).

Nice idea, OP, simply not possible.

Firstly any rolling stock which uses the Channel Tunnel, has to meet incredibly strict fire safety regs, which is one reason LPG cars are not allowed. A Eurostar train is actually two halves of a train which, in the event of the failure of one half, will permit the other half to rescue it out of the tunnel. Passenger carriages have special fireproofing too.

The freight and car shuttles have a 7500hp loco at each end (9400hp for freight shuttles) and the loco has to be capable of hauling the whole train, should a loco fail.

So to have a car from Manchester moved by rail, through the tunnel and be transported to Brussels, Berlin, or wherever, it would need the same kind of wagons used already, plus passenger accommodation, as it would be unrealistic to sit in the car for 5-6 hours.

Problem is, such suitable rail vehicles would be too large for the UK loading gauge and need expensive infrastructure improvements. Best we can manage is 9ft6in containers on wagons, and a max width of 8ft6in.

There have been newspaper reports of sleeper trains from Edinburgh, Manchester and London to European Capitals, but a lot of this is pure fantasy as the same fire regs apply, and there are no such vehicles in existence. To design and build them would be very expensive and have a questionable benefit, when it would be easier to catch an existing Eurostar from St Pancras at around 1900, have dinner on board then switch to a European sleeper train (whose network is expanding) in Paris or Brussels, for the rest of the journey to wherever.

Back in November 2010, Deutsche Bahn (German State Railways) brought an ICE train to London, as a taster for a passenger service it was proposing to Frankfurt, and the places. Has never happened, too many issues, and unlike to.

Let the plane take the strain? Oh wait, you can't. AFAIK

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kstdaFg0drc

Or in B+W, so we can see how far we've come

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cbI31LPlZY

"Wings add precious hours to the fleeting life of pleasure""

They don't write them like that anymore.

No car hire in France in 1950? Only 5 years after the war, so maybe not.

Edited by edlithgow on 29/06/2021 at 01:36

In the distant past I used motorail once, Santander - Malaga. I took the ferry from Plymouth, spent a day in Santander then joined the overnight service south, via Madrid. It is also the only time I have slept on a train. It's a long drive, much quicker by train. It was June 1992, I toured around Andalucia including visiting the World Expo in Seville and Gibraltar. I certainly let the train take the strain, however on the return I drove, overnighting in Madrid.

It was before the internet existed, I had to telephone them and ask for their fax number then submit my booking in writing, ticket on departure in Santander. They drove the car onto the train, there were many UK registered cars present on the day I travelled. The car was in the open on the train, needed a good wash on arrival!