Don’t forget that before the construction of the motorway network in the last twenty-five years or so, certain places, especially Cornwall and Scotland took hours to drive to on “ordinary” (and sometimes single-carriageway) roads.
Instead of loading a bunch of autos onto a railroad car, how about this idea…
Each auto gets its own mini railroad car or shares a large flatbed railroad car with other autos. You drive up a ramp extending from one side of the railroad car and park on top of the railroad car. On top of the railroad car is a little motorized turntable that spins your auto 90 degrees for purposes of train travel and locks your auto wheels to the railroad car. When you reach your destination, the turntable spins your car back 90 degrees, the ramp extends, and you drive down the ramp.
Wouldn’t this work for the popular routes? I can see a lot of commuters or weekenders going back and forth between certain cities but not wanting to drive or rent a car to do it.
Sacramento - San Francisco
San Diego - LA - San Francisco
LA - Las Vegas
For a long while the town of Whittier Alaska was only reachable by car if you put your car on a train but in recent years they opened up the rail tunnel so that you can now drive through it.
There are quite a few motorail services in Europe (see obfusciatrist’s link) but compared to normal train travel there are major drawbacks:
- need to book in advance - compare with normal train connections where you normally just buy a ticket and step on the train
- limited to a few point to point connections because you cannot change trains and cannot get off at intermediate stations. For example within Germany there are just two possible motorail journeys (Düsseldorf - Munich and Munich-Düsseldorf) but about 29 million (5400²) possible normal rail journeys
- loading and unloading add at least two hours.
The one train Amtrak operates through Arkansas is the Texas Eagle. The stations at Malvern, Arakadelphia and Walnut Ridge aren’t even staffed, much less offer any kind of baggage service.
snailboy, by “sportbike”, are you referring to a regular mechanical bike or a motorized one? If the former, then you may be interested to know that many train lines in Europe take bicycles. On many routes there is a dedicated car, without seats (or with folding seats), for holding bikes; on other routes bikes are permitted in every car in the vestibules. For passengers who want to continue their journey by bike but don’t wish to take a bike of their own on the train, some rail lines even have a bike rental service—see, for example, the Deutsche Bahn’s Call a Bike service.
What I was thinking is that the train cars open from the side and all the cars simply drive in from a platform at the same height. It would require no special technology and would take little time to load and unload. The only catch is long vehicles wouldn’t fit, but I guess people would just have to find another way to get their Winnebegos there.
No, I’m talking about a motorbike. I forgot the terminology differs a bit from country to country. It’s the motorcycle equivalent of a sports car.
You want to be sure the cars don’t hang wider than the train. You don’t want trains on adjacent tracks slamming into them.
Another thought is to use a standard auto carrier but just put half as many cars on it, allowing room to drive each car on and off the sides.