Motorail?

[Bluesnailman]

Having had a great trip to France and Spain last year I'm now planning next years 'caper'van holiday. I wondered if anyone had used motorail and had any advice on it?

http://www.seat61.com/Motorail.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yes it looks expensive but it also looks like my pop top westy will just about fit on some services in France and Germany to Austria. Looks like I could go south to Italian border from Paris and then come back on train from Innsbruck or Salzburg.

Any advice or experiences, would be happy to learn.....

 

[g16stu]

what routes did you find where you could fit the bus on? all i find is a max height of 1.7 m, the bus is a little over 2

 

[Termite]

I'd be interested what route you found as I can't seem to find a suitable one. Didn't even know they did this, looks a good idea. Train there, drive back.

 

[Marriedblonde]

Bloody expensive aren;t they? Looking at the link I couldn't find any that would be able to take my bus.

J.

 

[g16stu]

i think when you factor in fuel, campsite fees and possible road tolls to drive the same distances it'll work out cheaper in the end.

 

[Bluesnailman]

I'll take a more thorough look at the weekend, but I know that while not lowered my roof height is under 1980mm. I know this because driven very gently it fits in the garage..... Will post a summary of what i find

 

[Alex VW Heritage]

Reading this one with great interest! :mrgreen:

 

[Tofufi]

I've had a look into this before - my bus is a little under 6ft (1.83m) and this seems to be the maximum height I found for any of the motorrail trains.
I'd be a little wary

I'd be very interested if you find anything better, as we'd be looking to travel with friends who have campers taller than mine

Anything that knocks off 500+ miles of driving is a good thing in my book - while my bus will happily sit at 60-65mph, I don't enjoy endless motorways :lol:

 

[Tofufi]

Huh??? Why on earth would you wanna put your bus on a train????

I could understand if your were driving a Dune Buggy or something similar.....

Surely the idea of owning a bus is to DRIVE IT and then camp in it.......

just my 2 cents :?

In the same way that I'd rather put my bus (or ANY other car) on the ferry to Spain (from Portsmouth/Plymouth) than drive the 1000 miles/17 hours...

You jump in the bus, drive for a couple of hours, wait overnight, and you're somewhere far far away. Travelling from the UK to Spain/Italy/southern France takes you through a lot of unexciting bits of northern France

I've driven about 7 hours today - only about an hour of which was in my bus - I find concentrating for that long quite tiring.

 

[*Sam*]

For me I will be using the motorail because I don't think it's particularly fair on my 3 year old son to spend hours on end in the back watching the world go buy, if I could get enough holiday from work then I would camp my way through the journey spending a night in different places but sadly this isn't possible.
Cornwall is about as far as we go in one day and we set off in the middle of the night allowing my son to sleep a good portion of journey.
When he is older this may change but whilst he is so young it's no fun for him.

 

[*Sam*]

You didn't miss it, that was my first comment just thought I would share my point of view on the topic as we have been looking at this sort of trip for our family holiday next year.

 

[Bluesnailman]

well, they don't make it easy to find out do they?

Looks like the french and autoslaap services are out for unless you've gone for a roof chop (lowering brings its own problems)

German autozug is more promising but you have to meet some criteria as follows:

max 196cm height for services from Dusseldorf (well placed if your on the north sea ferries or in the Netherlands)

other services can take unto 205m height.

https://www.dbautozug.de/contentblob/2285594/bild+map/img9.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

with my pop-top measuring in around around 198cm height I've not explored many more options as the autozug location nearest terminal to Rotterdam is 360 miles away. (i live in york so north sea ferries are a great exit point for me)

i might explore letting some air out my tyres, but think I'm getting pretty close to saying that its not working for me at the moment.

beware lowered vehicles though, as ground clearance is an issue also. I think i read a minimum clearance of 10cm which shouldn't be a problem if your loved one is unmolested.

Full details on the autozug website, you need to attempt a booking to discover some nuances of the heights relative to pick up points and destinations as the table provided (extract below) over simplifies the situation.

Maximum vehicle height including roof attachments
to / from
Maximum roof width Germany, Austria Italy France
1.35 m(most saloons, estate cars and minivans) 2,05 m 1,97 m 1,83 m 1,75 m*

--------------

Regarding why you might want to use the train - well last time I drove to Austria I cleared Germany in a day at 90 - 100mph, in calm and comfort on cruise control up and down some pretty steep hills in a rather warm 36C. That trip was about the destination, not the journey. in the camper though - 40mph in 3rd on hills on the autobahn is not my idea of fun, and so it becomes a German based touring holiday, or a lot of days travelling relative to time spent in destination. (Netherlands and Germany make good holidays, no disrespect intended)

I hope this helps, and would be interested if anyone with a 'compliant' vehicle uses the train

cheers

D

 

[Tofufi]

Maximum roof width Germany, Austria Italy France
1.35 m(most saloons, estate cars and minivans) 2,05 m 1,97 m 1,83 m 1,75 m*


D

Did you look into maximum roof width at all? You've just jogged my memory, I seem to remember thinking the Bay window has a roof too wide to be allowed on some services at the higher height classifications...

 

[Bluesnailman]

I suppose it depend where you measure, but I measured the very top section and it came up at less than 120cm across. This seemed comfortably within the 135 so I took it as being ok.

I don't think the concern is about it fitting in the transporter. I found a page that showed where the vehicle would sit on the train. Looks like it would be on the top deck in the middle of the carriage. So the clearance issues are with bridges and tunnels. Working as an engineer in the railway industry I know something of railway gauging and (having not done any further research admittedly) think a tapering body to this width won't pose a problem.

 

[Alex VW Heritage]

Sorry still don't get it......

If you were talking about doing the trip in a "Euro-Box" or "Hatch-back" I would understand but this is what buses were built for......

The guy who brought my old Manx used this train to get back to Austria, But he had already driven from Scotland to santa pod and then all the way to the train.....

You know I love a long drive,

For me I look at cost for distance travelled if I can get to drive my bay round turkey and get there cheaper than the fuel it would cost to drive I'm Game!

 

[gvee]

I do like the sound of this!

Sorry still don't get it......

If you were talking about doing the trip in a "Euro-Box" or "Hatch-back" I would understand but this is what buses were built for......

I want to take my bus to Italy. Me getting 2 consecutive weeks off work is extremely unlikely.
I think getting the train there, spending a couple of days, then driving home and camping en route sounds ideal 8)

Heck, on my last euro road trip (not in a van, sadly) we had some car troubles which caused a severe delay, leaving us a minute amount of time to drive a stupid distance in order to make our ferry. If I could have shoved the car on a train and had a more relaxing journey, I would have done. If this had happened in the van there was no way I would have been able to drive fast enough to get there on time.

Sometimes it is just about reducing the stresses when on a break!

 

[Clem]

Getting to the South of France from Calais, as an example, is two good days driving in a camper and most of it is extremely dull. I'd definately take the option of doing a load of that by train Going to Italy is a bit better as you go across the alps which is stunning, but miles and miles of fields through France is dire :lol:

Im lucky as my daughter is an awesome traveller and just entertains herself, but I always feel pretty guilty about really long drives. The ferry to Bilbao was great in that respect ... get off the boat after loafing about for a day and a half and drive into Spanish sunshine

 

[Bluesnailman]

well, DB have still not published their summer timetable, but i did find this from 2013. i'm going to give them a call this week as the booking system suggests the max height from Dusseldorf is 196cm, yet the brochure for this route says otherwise. Page 7 has the dimension details (the second row means to say 'from 136 to.......'


http://media.dbautozug.de/katalog/Sommer2013/GB/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'll do a bit more exploring, but looks like it could still be possible for a high and mighty pop top......