Motorail Letting the train take the strain

[Music] as recently as 2006 in great britain it was possible to make a long distance journey with your car without having to have your hands on the steering wheel apply the brakes or even stay awake by using a service called motor rail where your car was loaded directly onto a train the first motor rail services were provided for purely practical reasons in 1910 the great western railway introduced a service between the stations at pilning near bristol and seven tunnel junction on the welsh side of the seven estuary the trains took advantage of the seven tunnel which had opened in 1886 and allowed edwardian motorists to avoid the lengthy 50 mile detour by road via gloucester up to three trains per day ran in each direction with passenger coaches and cars loaded onto flat wagons and provided with waterproof covers to protect them from water seeping into the tunnel these continued up until the 6th of october 1966 when the seven bridge was opened in the mid-1950s the newly nationalized british railways saw the rising popularity of the private car starting to eat away at their passenger traffic and aware of the dawning of the motorway age with the opening of the preston bypass in 1958 determined to try and tap into a potentially lucrative market in june 1955 the car sleeper limited service was launched overnight between london and perth with sleeping cars for passengers combined with flat wagons for their cars it proved a great success it was joined in 1955 by a service between manchester and bologn dubbed the continental car sleeper although in this case both passengers and cars had to transfer from train to ferry at dover further services including the york to inverness highland car sleeper and the western country car sleeper from newcastle to exeter joined the network by the early 1960s the network consisted of no fewer than eight routes crisscrossing the uk offering combined fares for conveyance of the car and its driver along with heavily discounted fares for accompanying passengers however the service wasn't cheap a driver taking his car from glasgow to eastbourne could expect to pay the equivalent of around 470 pounds in today's money but he would get there faster and more rested and wouldn't have to stop every few hours to fill up his petrol tank in 1961 day car carrier services were offered between london and edinburgh via newcastle where ferry connections to norway could be had or from london to oakhampton in devon instead of sleeper cars these trains combined the car wagons with normal first and second class passenger carriages and a restaurant car a car tourist service also ran from london to centaurstal with both seating carriages and sleeper cars for which an extra supplementary fare was charged could also add on various other packages to their journeys such as breakfast or overnight accommodation in british transport hotels or packed lunch and supper boxes including a small thermos flask of tea to take on the journey in 1965 british railways became british rail and launched a brand new and up-to-date corporate image including the famous double arrows symbol and new liveries for its most important trains the following year in city was launched to reinvigorate long distance daytime and overnight train services with car carrying services being relaunched under the motor rail name in 1966 br had an opportunity to seize a significant chunk of the domestic travel market although ownership of private cars was on the rise they still largely had to use an a-road network based on medieval car tracks passing through congested town centres the motorway provided an alternative only in a handful of places and coach travel although relatively cheap stuck to the same congested a roads calling in at most significant towns and with frequent stops at wayside pubs for toilet and refreshment breaks in addition to the existing motor rail facilities at houston paddington and king's cross br invested in a new motor rail terminal at kensington olympia in west london and opened other terminals near larger provincial cities some of these were somewhat inconvenient birmingham's terminal was at sutton coldfield some six miles north east of the city centre whilst liverpool and manchester had to make do with a facility at newton lewis roughly halfway between them and 15 miles from either overall coverage of the network was however excellent with motorola facilities stretching from inverness in the north of scotland to penzance in the far south west of england other terminals included comarthon fishgard newcastle upon tyne swansea sterling new haven bristol hollyhead dover aberdeen and carlisle by the early 1970s the convenience and simplicity of the service offered led to the network expanding to at least two dozen routes including both daytime and overnight services canny marketing by british rail boosted patronage and you could even purchase motorised branded merchandise such as overnight bags to complement your trip the trains themselves helped to take traffic off of congested roads and allowed the same benefits of a quicker and more restful journey for the driver and their passengers that they always had motor rail also provided a good way for br to sweat its assets making use of locomotives and rolling stock that otherwise would have spent its time languishing in depots many trains continued to transport cars on open flat wagons with shields placed over the windscreen although a rise in the number of incidents of vandalism to cars with a well-aimed rock thrown from an overbridge led br to phase in the use of covered vans from the early 1970s apart from the closure of newton the willows in 1972 forcing mancunian and liverpudlian customers to add another 20 miles to their already lengthy journey by driving to crew and the replacement of restaurant cars with pre-ordered meal trays in 1981 the network and its associated marketing continued pretty much unchanged into the mid 1980s but as they always do times were changing a government led by margaret thatcher that was generally apathetic towards the fortunes of railways had pressed on with aggressive motorway and bypass schemes and deregulated the bus and coach industry allowing much greater competition from both the private car and long distance coaches to eat away at the motorail customer base british rail had also made sensible commercial decisions to introduce new faster intercity trains on key routes and make commercial partnerships with several companies to offer car hire facilities at principal stations to lure in commercial travelers and overseas tourists whilst these were sound and practical moves they did make the motor rail trains with their older fleet of 60s and 70s locomotive hall coaching stock look outdated and less attractive further blows were landed in 1986 when the move to sectorisation brought about further service enhancements by intercity including cross london services from scotland and north west england to the channel ports via kensington olympia this removed the need to drag luggage between terminals via the tube but also stole one of motorale's key selling points by the end of the 1980s motorail's once profitable network was making losses in stark contrast to the rest of intercity which was working towards eliminating its subsidy altogether the pioneering london to sterling service came to an end in 1989 with the final motor rail train running in 1995 as the br network began to be privatised plans for regional and overnight eurostar services running directly to continental europe which were meant to offset the loss of motorale on some routes never materialized however that wasn't quite the end of the line as in 1999 first great western who operated the overnight knight riviera sleeper service from london paddington to penzance offered a single motorail service in each direction on friday nights which continued to operate until the end of the 2006 summer season as for the future there continue to be occasional rumors and suggestions that a motor rail type service could be reintroduced and in some ways the ability for open access operators to start novel services aimed at niche markets make this a tantalizing possibility road congestion and the search for greener modes of travel could yet play a part in revitalizing a motor rail style service however the kovid 19 pandemic of the early 2020s has brought about changes in the work and holiday routines for many potential customers motor rail as a concept was very much of its time seizing a brief window of opportunity that existed during the rising car ownership before the completion of the motorway network and privatization of the railways fondly remembered by many and sadly missed by some it was the right solution at the right time who knows if its time may yet come again hope you've enjoyed this video if you have please give it a like and don't forget to click on the notification bell to hear about new videos and also subscribe to the channel thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: Epic Curiosity

Views: 26,005

Keywords: British Rail, BR, British Railways, Motorail, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, InterCity, Inter-City, Motor Rail, Great Britain, United Kingdom, Railways, Rail, Transport, Great Western Railway, GWR, Pilning, Perth, Kensington Olympia, Stirling, Severn Tunnel Junction, Severn Tunnel, Newton Abbott, Newton Abbot, Newton-le-willows, Newton le willows, Kings Cross, King's Cross, Railway, Euston, Continental Car Sleeper, Car Carrier, Margaret Thatcher, Thatcher, Privatisation, First Great Western

Id: 0XRx0OX7xaw

Length: 13min 8sec (788 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 20 2022