Motorail (British Rail)

A Motorail service to Scotland at Carlisle in 1988

Motorail was the brand name for British Rail's long-distance services that carried passengers' cars, ultimately part of the InterCity sector. It originated with the June 1955 introduction of The Car-Sleeper Limited between London and Perth. (Due to the enginemen's strike that summer the precise start date is uncertain.) The Motorail brand was introduced in 1966 with BR press releases and the opening of the London Kensington Olympia terminal.[1]

Routes

Motorail

Legend
This diagram is a guide: not all destinations
shown were served in all years of operation.
Fort William
Inverness
Perth
Stirling
Aberdeen
Edinburgh Waverley
Carlisle
York
Newcastle
Newton le Willows
Sheffield
Birmingham
(Sutton Coldfield)
Worcester
Fishguard Harbour
(for ferries to Ireland)
Swansea
Cardiff
Bristol Temple Meads
Reading
London
(Kensington Olympia)
Dover
(For Continental Ferries)
Brockenhurst
Newton Abbot
Exeter
Totnes
Plymouth
St Austell
Penzance

Motorail operated from London to many places including Penzance, Plymouth, Fishguard, Carlisle, Edinburgh, Perth, Inverness and Fort William. A short-lived service from London to Glasgow was introduced in the early 1990s.

A variety of rolling stock, both open and enclosed, was used. Many routes were operated with overnight sleeper services. The open double deck Cartic 4 was first used on a Kensington Olympia to Perth Motorail on 22 June 1966.[2] and last used in 1978.[3]

Withdrawal

Usage on many routes had declined by the early 1990s. In 1989 the London to Stirling service was discontinued.[4] The services operated at a significant loss and the service ceased in 1995 when British Rail was privatised.[5] First Great Western relaunched a service from London Paddington to Penzance as part of their Night Riviera overnight sleeper service in 1999, but withdrew it at the end of summer 2005.

Gallery

References

  1. John Furnevel (2005-07-20). "West London Line | RAILSCOT Magazine". Railbrit.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-05-22.
  2. Modern Railways September 1966 p. 468
  3. Cartic-4 car carriers
  4. "BR Motorail service pulls out of Stirling". The Herald. Glasgow. 8 February 1989. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  5. Paul Routledge (1995-01-01). "Motorail to be axed in BR sell-off - News". The Independent. Retrieved 2014-05-22.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/15/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.