This 1960s Motorail service allowed passengers to travel in style then drive their own car away

There once was a British Rail service in the UK called ‘Motorail’ that carried passengers and their cars.

It ran for much longer than we think, and it covered a vast number of cities in Great Britain.

At its peak, it carried 100,000 passengers annually.

For a very good reason, this service probably wouldn’t make sense in 2025.

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Today, you can still load your cars onto a train and travel with it, but that’s the exception.

For example, you can still ‘drive’ from the UK to France using the Channel Tunnel, or Chunnel, as people call it.

But the Motorail – as British Rail dubbed it – was completely different. YouTuber Jack Stackhouse explains why:

In short, this service allowed you to travel from point A to point B in Great Britain by train, while also ‘packing’ your car as luggage, so to speak.

You’d simply drive to the train, and then on to the train, and then drive around once you’re at your destination.

The service ran from the mid-1950s until the mid-1990s and, at its peak, it carried 100,000+ passengers annually.

The network was quite extensive, and you could travel (among other places) to York, Sheffield, London and Newcastle.

You could even drive to Wales, Scotland or a place called Fishguard Harbour, where you could continue your journey onwards to Ireland on a ferry.

The Motorail probably wouldn’t make much sense today.

By the 1990s, cars had gotten faster, safer, and a lot more comfortable, which is ultimately what killed this service.

There are still companies exploring new travel solutions when it comes to trains, from hydrogen-powered options to ambitious underwater trains from Dubai or China.

But the Motorail is probably a thing of the past. Don’t expect a comeback anytime soon.