Above:
French Motorail from Calais to the South of France is a painless way to get your family,
car and all your luggage down to the sun...
Normal passenger trains
don't carry cars or motorbikes, just
passengers and their luggage and sometimes bicycles.
However, there are
special 'Motorail'
trains which carry cars & motorbikes, which
run on a limited number of holiday routes, usually on
certain days of the week, and usually summer-only.
There are great advantages in using motorail over flying
then hiring a car when you get there: you can take as
much luggage (and toys for the kids) as you like, and you
can bring back as much wine or beer as you can safely pack
in! No baggage fees or weight limits, no expensive
airport parking, and the journey becomes part of the
holiday. Overnight motorail trains are very
time-effective and mean you may save a hotel bill or two, as
well.
Motorail trains
carry cars and motorbikes, and some routes (not all) can now
take over-height 4x4 vehicles and people carriers.
However, they can't carry caravans or campers.
On this page...
Summary of
motorail services of interest to UK travellers:
French
Motorail from Calais: Calais to
Avignon, Fréjus, Nice, Brive, Toulouse, Narbonne...
French Motorail (www.raileurope.co.uk/frenchmotorail) is a painless way to get your family,
car and all your luggage from the
UK to the South of France, with Narbonne & Nice a
short drive away from the Spanish or Italian borders.
One train runs overnight from Calais to
Avignon, Fréjus (for St Tropez) & Nice (handy for
the Italian Riviera), another runs overnight from
Calais
to Brive, Toulouse & Narbonne (handy for the
Spain's Costa Brava). They operate from mid-May
to mid-September, southbound on
Friday nights (also
Sunday nights from late July to late August),
northbound on Saturday nights (also Monday nights from
late July to late August). One price covers the
car, driver and all car passengers, varying between
£340 & £590 each way depending on your destination and
date of travel. The price includes exclusive
private use of a whole 6-berth or 4-berth couchette
compartment and continental breakfast at your
destination (1- & 2-bed sleepers were withdrawn from
French Motorail trains in January 2006). Who
uses French Motorail? Families,
couples, and bikers, to name three typical groups, and
it has its loyal customers who come back year after
year. The bar car on the Calais-Nice motorail is
described by one train manager as "Somewhere you can
find Lord So-and-So chatting away to a
leather-jacketed Harley Davidson Biker".
French motorail carries motorbikes, normal cars and
many 4X4 and MPVs (maximum height 1.80
metres), for example Land Rover Freelanders &
Volkswagen Tourans but not very tall vehicles such as
Land Rover Discoveries, campers or vans.
Dogs and other pets are not carried on French
motorail trains. 'French Motorail' is a
subsidiary of Rail Europe, itself a UK-managed
subsidiary of SNCF (French Railways). French
Motorail contracts with SNCF to run the trains and
provide the wagons and coaches.
For dates, times, prices &
online booking see
www.raileurope.co.uk/frenchmotorail or call Rail Europe's Motorail line
on 0844 848 4050 (lines open 0900-1700 Monday-Friday).
French Motorail can also arrange your Channel Crossing
either by Eurotunnel or ferry, at special rates.
What's travelling with French Motorail like?
1. Crossing the Channel:
You cross the Channel
around lunchtime, either by ferry or Eurotunnel. French Motorail can
arrange this at special rates. It's then a
few minute's drive to the French Motorail terminal in
central Calais - you'll find a map in your documentation...
2.
At the Motorail terminal: You're met at the entrance gate by
a Rail Europe rep who explains everything and places a
sticker on your car indicating its destination.
They give you a label for your car keys - remember to
take a spare set of keys just in case... Check-in
for the train to Avignon, Fréjus & Nice is
15.20-17.30, check-in for the train to Brive, Toulouse &
Narbonne is 17.55-20.00.
3. Park anywhere you like and drop your passengers
off at the terminal building along with your
overnight bags.
Remember not to leave any valuables in the car. In the terminal there's a cafe,
toilets, baby changing room, and you can buy wine & a
(pre-ordered) picnic box for the journey. You
can also pre-book an early dinner in the terminal's
restaurant. There's a children's
play area outside with slide.
4.
Loading the car: You now drive your car to the loading
checkpoint on the far side of the car park, where
there's a brief car condition check. Put the
aerial down! You sign the
condition form...
5. You then drive a
few hundred yards further on to the actual car loading
area. You park your car in front of the ramps and
leave the keys in the ignition. SNCF staff load
the car onto the car-transporters. You walk back
to the terminal, or hop on the shuttle minibus.
Have a coffee, and buy that bottle of wine for the trip!
6.
Boarding the train: The Avignon/Fréjus/Nice
train leaves at 18:05, the Brive/Toulouse/Narbonne train
at 20:40. The train becomes available for boarding
about 20 minutes before departure. The platform is reached
via steps & a subway from the auto-train terminal.
Above: A 1st class 4-berth couchette
compartment, with berths folded away for evening &
morning use...
Above: The same 1st class couchette
compartment, with the berths folded
out...
A
2nd class 6-berth compartment...
7. On board the train: You
and your family get sole occupancy
of a whole couchette compartment, either a 1st class
4-berth one or a 2nd class 6-berth one. Believe it
or not, French
Motorail don't distinguish between classes, and there's
no difference in price - if there's 5 or 6 people in
your car, you'll get a 2nd class 6-berth compartment, if
there's 1-4 people in your car you'll probably get a 1st
class 4-berth compartment, but if it's busy and you've
booked late, you may end up with a 2nd class one.
The 1st class compartments are looking a bit tired,
perhaps, but are actually pretty
spacious & comfortable.
The 2nd class ones are much more basic. How can
you tell which class you're booked in? The 1st
class cars are normally numbered 11-14, the 2nd class
ones 15-18. "CO4AV/12/4" on your booking documents
means car 12, compartment 4, which in this case would be
one of the 1st class cars. Whichever class of
couchette you get, a pillow
and lightweight sleeping bag are provided for each
passenger, along with a small bottle of mineral water.
There's a bar car, selling tea, coffee and half bottles
of wine - if you've still forgotten to get one!
There's no food in the bar car, so remember to bring
your own picnic, or pre-order one of the picnic boxes
picked up from the Motorail terminal. Enjoy the
evening on the train with your family as northern France
swishes by...
Above: The bar car, serving tea,
coffee, half bottles of wine (but not food, so take your
own).
8. Next morning: Wake up in the South of
France to great scenery, and head for the bar car to get a morning
coffee... Here, the Calais-Nice motorail is
between Marseille & Fréjus.
9.
Arrival & unloading: On arrival, a continental breakfast is served at the
motorail terminal (included in the price) while your car
is unloaded by SNCF staff. This is Fréjus.
It's all pretty relaxed!
Auto-Train from Paris to Nice,
Geneva, Avignon, Biarritz, Marseille, Tarbes, Narbonne, St
Raphael, Toulon, Toulouse
The French Railways also operate their own domestic
car-carrying trains, called Auto-Train, some of which run all
year round at least a few times a week. In this
case, cars &
passengers travel separately: You check your car
in during day 1, the cars are transported overnight,
and you pick your car up on day 2. Passengers
travel on any regular passenger train they like,
either a daytime TGV or overnight train with
couchettes. You can book Auto-Train through Rail
Europe in the UK, call Rail Europe's Motorail line on 0844 848 4050 (lines open 0900-1700 Monday-Friday).
AutoSlaapTrein from
s'Hertogenbosch to Avignon
If you live in
the North of England, Scotland or East Anglia, this Dutch
motorail service can be useful as there are direct ferries
from Newcastle, Hull or Harwich to Holland. Run by a private
Dutch company,
www.autoslaaptrein.nl, it operates weekly between June & September from s'Hertogenbosch (in the middle of the
Netherlands, a short drive from the Channel ports of Hoek
van Holland or Rotterdam) to Avignon. The
train runs overnight with couchettes (4 & 6-berth) and
private sleepers (1, 2 & 3 bed) southbound on Friday
nights, northbound on Saturday nights. Their website is
currently only in Dutch, but you can contact them for
details, or book in the UK through www.railsavers.com
on 01253 59 55 55, lines open 09:00-17:00
Monday-Saturday, 10:00-16:00 Sunday. For ferries
from Harwich (East Anglia) to Hoek van Holland, see the seat61 Ferry Shop
or
www.stenaline.co.uk. For the overnight cruise ferry
from from Hull to Rotterdam, see
www.poferries.com. For the overnight cruise ferry
from Newcastle to IJmuiden (Amsterdam), see www.dfds.co.uk. It's only a short drive from any of these ports to s'Hertogenbosch.
Unfortunately,
there areno direct motorail trains from Calais or Paris to
anywhere in Italy, in spite of high demand. But
you can drive to Holland or Düsseldorf and take
the motorail to Italy from there, or take the Calais-Nice
motorail and drive the rest of the way. Each of these
options is described below.
Option 1: Düsseldorf to
Italy by German Railways motorail:
DB AutoZug
Düsseldorf is a
4-hour drive (245 miles) from Calais, or a 2 hours 40 minute
drive (157 miles) from Hoek van Holland or Rotterdam. German railways
(Deutsche Bahn) run excellent motorail trains from Düsseldorf to
Verona & Alessandria in Italy. The trains run
overnight with both
couchettes and
sleepers plus a bistro-restaurant car. Some deluxe
sleepers even have private shower & toilet. Prices
start from as little as 149 euros (£108) one-way for car &
driver with couchette sleeping berth on the train if you
book online in advance and corner a cheap deal. Dogs
can be carried, too.
The
Düsseldorf-Alessandria motorail runs every Sunday night from
March until October, loading 15:40-16:10, departing 16:54
arriving 07:45 next morning. For
online booking, see the
DB AutoZug website (English button top centre).
The
Düsseldorf-Verona Motorail train runs every Friday night in
April then on Friday & Sunday nights from May to October,
loading 16:15-16:45, departing 17:54 and arriving 09:55 next
morning. For
online booking, see the
DB AutoZug website (English button top centre).
Option 2: Calais to Nice
by French Motorail, then a short drive to Italy...
The overnight Calais to
Nice motorail train can take the
strain out of a long drive to Italy, see
the France section
above or
www.raileurope.co.uk/frenchmotorail.
Nice is 33 miles' drive from San Remo, 119 miles from Genoa,
190 miles from Cinque Terre, and 258 miles from Florence.
A private
Dutch company,
www.autoslaaptrein.nl, runs an excellent weekly motorail train
between June & September from s'Hertogenbosch (in the middle of the
Netherlands, a short drive from the Channel ports of Hoek
van Holland or Rotterdam) to Bologna in Italy. The
train runs overnight with couchettes (4 & 6-berth) and
private sleepers (1, 2 & 3 bed) southbound on Friday nights,
northbound on Saturday nights. Their website is
currently only in Dutch, but you can contact them for
details, or book in the UK through www.railsavers.com
on 01253 59 55 55, lines open 09:00-17:00
Monday-Saturday, 10:00-16:00 Sunday.
For the overnight cruise ferry
from from Hull to Rotterdam, see
www.poferries.com.
For the overnight cruise ferry
from Newcastle to IJmuiden (Amsterdam), see www.dfds.co.uk.
It's only a short drive from any of these ports to s'Hertogenbosch.
Traveller
Stephen Powell reports on a motorail journey from Livorno to s'Hertogenbosch
with
www.autoslaaptrein.nl in 2008:
"Ticket booking through Rail Savers was
fine though a little delayed, as we didn’t get sent the
tickets until 2 days before we departed. I gather this
was due to a delay with the rail company, not Rail Savers,
though it's definitely good to keep on top of this. The
station in Livorno is clearly sign posted and easy to find.
It was clear where to go in the station and the process of
boarding the train in the car was very well organised. All
the staff spoke English and were very helpful on the train.
Getting off the other end was equally efficient. One
thing I would say is think hard about whether to eat in the
restaurant car. We paid nearly £30 a head for a meal that
was little better than the free meal in Eurostar first
class, plus this did not include any drinks at all, even
water, and it was 17 Euros for a bottle of wine on top.
Although it's nice to spend and hour or two in the
restaurant you can always have a drink there after the last
dinner sitting (9pm ish). It wasn’t made clear that we were
entitled to a free dinner in our compartment had we not paid
for the restaurant meal, which we did not receive because we
were in the restaurant car."
The motorail
services from Brussels to Italy operated by the Belgian
national railways stopped
running in December 2003, but a new privately-run motorail service
was due to
start in 2006 from Denderleeuw (near Brussels) to Bologna and Alessandria in
Italy. Unfortunately, it didn't start in 2006 or in
2007, and summer 2008 now looks very doubtful. In
fact,
I'll believe it when I see it. The train is planned to run
overnight with sleeping-cars, couchettes and restaurant car,
outward on Friday nights from late June to early September,
returning northbound on Saturday nights. Denderleeuw is 90 minutes' drive from Calais, 45 minutes
from Zeebrugge. Prices will start at around £270 one-way for car+driver in shared couchette, £405 one-way for
car+driver+passenger in private 2-bed sleeper. Fares & times will be shown on
www.ttconline.nl,
or in the UK, contact www.railsavers.com
on 01253 59 55 55, lines open 09:00-17:00
Monday-Saturday, 10:00-16:00 Sunday.
* Latest news
(mid-2008): Regrettably, not only did TTC
fail to get the arrangements for their new
Brussels-Italy Motorail train sorted for the summer
2006 & 2007, it doesn't look as if they're going to
start in summer 2008
either. I will update this page if and when they
start operation...
Car-carrying
trains within Italy...
Motorail trains
carrying passengers' cars operate on many routes within
Italy, including Bologna-Palermo & Bologna-Catania (Sicily)
daily year-round, Turin-Bari weekly all year and daily in
summer, Bolzano-Bari weekly year-round, Rome-Sicily weekly,
and many summer-only routes. See
www.trenitalia.com and to book in the UK contact motorail
experts www.railsavers.com
(01253 595555).
It may be
better to take a direct cruise ferry from the UK to Spain.
www.poferries.com sail
Portsmouth-Bilbao and
www.brittany-ferries.co.uk sail Plymouth - Santander,
all year-round.
Both companies have excellent ships, making for an enjoyable
voyage, complete with whale-watching in the Bay of Biscay...
You can also book all these routes through the
Seat61 Ferry Shop. There
are also kennel facilities on board for dogs.
Car-carrying
trains within Spain:
Motorail trains within Spain
were all suspended in 2006 and are not currently
running at all. They may resume in 2008, but
there are no signs of this yet.
However, if and when operating, routes include Santander-Madrid
overnight daily except Saturdays from July to September, Bilbao-Alicante
overnight on Fridays all year, Bilbao-Malaga overnight on Fridays all year
(3-weekly in summer), Madrid-Algeciras (for Gibraltar or
Morocco ferry) daily overnight year-round, and Madrid-Malaga daily
except Saturdays all year. See
www.renfe.es
and contact UK motorail specialists www.railsavers.com
on 01253 59 55 55 (lines open 09:00-17:00
Monday-Saturday, 10:00-16:00 Sunday) or Renfe agents
www.spanish-rail.co.uk. Car transport costs around
80-140 euros one-way depending on the length of the journey,
excluding driver & passengers who pay the regular fares.
Apart from a
3-times-weekly Paris-Geneva 'Auto-Train'
service in summer, there are no
motorail trains to Switzerland, the only option is to drive
from the channel ports all the way.
There are no motorail trains from Calais to anywhere except
southern France. However, there are motorail trains
within Germany and Austria that may help, for example
Hildesheim (near Hanover) to Munich. You can check routes and book
German motorail trains online at the
DB AutoZug website (English button top centre).
German
Railways motorail: Düsseldorf to
Innsbruck, Salzburg, Villach...
Düsseldorf is a
4-hour drive (245 miles) from Calais, or a 2 hours 40 minute
drive (157 miles) from Hoek van Holland or Rotterdam. German railways
(Deutsche Bahn) run excellent motorail trains from Düsseldorf to
Innsbruck, Salzburg & Villach in Austria. The trains
run overnight with both
couchettes and
sleepers plus a bistro-restaurant car. Prices
start from as little as 149 euros (£108) one-way for car &
driver with couchette sleeping berth on the train if you
book online in advance and corner a cheap deal. Dogs
can be carried, too.
The
Düsseldorf-Salzburg motorail runs every Sunday night from
February until October, loading 17:50-18:10, departing 18:54
and arriving Salzburg at 06:00 next morning. For
online booking, see the
DB AutoZug website (English button top centre).
The
Düsseldorf-Innsbruck Motorail train runs every Friday night
in February & March then on Wednesday nights from April to
October, loading 19:50-20:10, departing 21:02 and arriving
Innsbruck at 07:20 next morning. For
online booking, see the
DB AutoZug website (English button top centre).
The
Düsseldorf-Villach Motorail train runs every Friday night in
February, March, April then on Wednesday & Friday nights
from May to September, then Fridays in October, loading
17:40-18:10, departing 18:54 and arriving Villach at 09:26
next morning. For
online booking, see the
DB AutoZug website (English button top centre).
Austrian
Railways motorail: Düsseldorf to
Vienna by ...
Austrian
Railways (ÖBB) run a Düsseldorf-Vienna overnight motorail
train for most of the year, daily at peak times, twice
weekly off-peak (Fri & Sun nights southbound, Thurs & Sat
nights northbound). Departs Düsseldorf 20:15, arrives
Vienna Westbahnhof 09:07. Car transport costs 89 euros
each way, passengers pay the normal rail fares and travel in
a sleeper or couchette. See
http://www.oebb.at/pv/de/Rund_ums_Reisen/Autoreisezug/Deutschland/
(or if this link stops working, navigate from the
www.oebb.at
home page). If you can cope with German, there's
online booking. Alternatively, to book in the UK (in
English!) contact motorail experts www.railsavers.com
(01253 595555).
Taking your car to the Netherlands:
There are no motorail services
from the UK to Holland & the Netherlands, but there are
ferries.
Harwich-Hoek van Holland...
www.stenaline.co.uk
sail from Harwich in Essex to Hoek van Holland near
Rotterdam with both a daytime and an overnight crossing,
cabins available.
Newcastle-IJmuiden (Amsterdam)...
www.dfds.co.uk
sail from North Shields (Newcastle) overnight to IJmuiden
(the port of Amsterdam), cabins available.
Hull-Rotterdam...
P&O (www.poferries.com)
sail from Hull to Rotterdam overnight, cabins available.
The Düsseldorf
- Villach motorail service will get you from Düsseldorf (a 4
hour drive from Calais or a 2 hour 40 minute drive from Hook
of Holland or Rotterdam) to Villach in southern Austria, a
stone's throw from the Slovenian border, from where you can
easily drive to Ljubljana, Zagreb, Split or Rijeka, see the
Motorail to Austria section above.
There are now no direct motorail trains to Croatia.
If you are
travelling further afield, Optima Tours run Motorrail trains
from Villach in southern Austria to Bulgaria, Macedonia
(Skopje), Greece (Thessaloniki), and Turkey (Edirne), with
departures on various dates from May to October.
See www.optimatours.de
for dates, times and booking information.
Taking your
car to Greece by motorail to Italy then ferry...
See above for
information about the weekly motorail trains from Germany, Belgium or the
Netherlands to Verona or Alessandria in northern Italy. Car ferries operate
from Italy (Venice, Ancona, Bari, Brindisi) to Greece
(Corfu, Igoumenitsa, Patras), try
www.superfast.com,
www.bluestarferries.com,
www.minoan.gr.
There are no
motorail trains to Scandinavia, but direct car
ferries link the UK with Denmark (& Norway, until September
2008) several times
a week, all year round, see www.dfds.co.uk.
