Car loading

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Under a car train or a car-train ( Swiss ) is defined as the transport driving-compatible and approved for traffic motor vehicles with another vehicle.

Car loading by ship

Car loading by hovercraft

From 1968 to 2000 there was a car loading by hovercraft between Calais and Dover .

Car loading by train

There are car loads by train (sometimes also called rail loading), which regularly shuttle over comparatively short distances, and those for which long-term advance booking is usually necessary and which operate over longer distances. The latter are called motorail trains .

There are regular car loads by train, especially in the Alps, in order to transport motor vehicles through railway tunnels and thus save them the arduous journey over a mountain pass, at best only where there are no parallel roads or where they are closed in winter. Unlike car train connections, they are also noted in many car atlases. In the lowlands, car loads to Sylt via the Hindenburgdamm and through the Channel Tunnel are the only car loads that are permanently in use for shuttle traffic. The vehicles drive into the car transporters and the driver and passengers stay in the vehicle to ensure that it is unloaded quickly at the destination. A closed car with a two-wheel compartment is carried for drivers of motorbikes and bicycles.

The rolling road (piggyback traffic), on which the drivers also accompany their vehicles, is to be distinguished from car loading , but is only open to heavy traffic.

Car loading in Germany

The Sylt Shuttle (operator: DB Fernverkehr ) and the Autozug Sylt (operator RDC Germany) transport motor vehicles on railway wagons over the Hindenburgdamm between Niebüll and Westerland on Sylt .

Car loading in Switzerland

Car loading in Kandersteg
Car loading on the Oberalp Pass in winter
Car transport in Realp (Canton Uri) towards Canton Valais through the Furka Base Tunnel

In Switzerland, car transport usually means transport by train (usually through tunnels). As a special feature, it should be noted that the journey over the Oberalp takes more than an hour and the car transporters have no protective roofs, which is why the accompanying persons travel in the passenger car of the train. The same applied to the car transporter on the Albula, which was discontinued in 2011. Car loading is part of passenger transport in Switzerland, while piggyback transport (transport of lorries and chauffeurs) is counted as freight transport.

Lötschberg - Simplon

(Standard gauge)

Furka - Oberalp

Realp car loading station for the Furka Base Tunnel

(Meter gauge)

Vereina

(Meter gauge)

Former offers

Loading at Airolo, photo 1940 by Annemarie Schwarzenbach

(Standard gauge)

(Meter gauge)

  • Albula car transport : Thusis ( GR ) - Samedan ( GR ) on the Albula Railway as an alternative to the Julier Pass , operated by RhB , was discontinued at the end of the 2011 winter season.
  • Until 1974, the RhB offered car transport between Davos Glaris and Wiesen as required, because the state road through the Zügen Gorge, opened in 1874, was often closed due to the danger of avalanches. The flat cars waiting at the stations that were still being served at that time were given to the timetable trains. The 2.7 km long Landwasser Tunnel , opened in 1974, made car loading unnecessary.

Car loading in Austria

  • Car train loaded with vehicles

  • Mallnitz train station of the Tauernschleusse

Car loading in France and Great Britain

Motor vehicles are driven through the Channel Tunnel in closed railcars from Sangatte ( Pas-de-Calais , France ) to Cheriton ( Kent , Great Britain ).

Car loading in Slovenia

Car train at the tunnel portal of Podbrdo

Between Most na Soči (S. Lucia-Tolmein) and Bohinjska Bistrica (Feistritz-Wocheinersee) cars are transported on the Wocheinerbahn on open flat cars behind diesel locomotives. Between Podbrdo and Bohinjska Bistrica they drive through the 6,327 m long Wocheiner tunnel .

Car loading by plane

From 1948 to around 1980 there were several routes in Europe on which a car was loaded by plane, first with the Bristol 170 , then with the Aviation Traders ATL-98 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the BLS car transport on www.bls.ch
  2. ↑ Birg-Iselle car transport on the BLS website
  3. ↑ DETEC media release: Official reopening of the Gotthard road tunnel ( Memento of August 31, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ `` Eisenbahn-Amateur '' magazine 1/2013, page 19
  5. ^ Railway Atlas of Italy and Slovenia . Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2010, ISBN 978-3-89494-129-1 . German station names according to the Austrian course book 1914, field 71.
  6. ↑ Mike Kingdom-Hockings: Silver City Airways - and other ways of crossing the channel half a century ago. franceforfreebooters.com, archived from the original on March 20, 2006 ; accessed on December 26, 2010 (English).

See also