speculation - could Motorail make a come-back in the age of the electric car?

[geoffk]

I wonder if this could be an attractive travel option again, in the age of the electric vehicle.

Charging points on the train straight off the overhead wires - via a rectifier of course - your car arrives at its destination fully charged and ready to go!

Trains to and from the West Country could run via Bristol Parkway to maximise the distance under the wires. Who would make the investment?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Definitely not. More likely is easy car club style hire at your destination, perhaps booked with your ticket. SBB are already doing this in Switzerland.

 

[uvarvu]

MSN

"Tesla owners were having a truly British Christmas this year by queuing for hours to charge their electric cars."

Sounds like a no brainer to me.

 

[HSTEd]

The fundamental problem is we don't have the loading gauge for this.

We have one Motorail service and it has one of the largest loading gauges in the world.

Simply can't fit an operationally practical Motorail service in the normal UK loading gauge.

It has to be self drive on and off or your cycle times and labour requirements would be far too long to be at all economic

 

[GWVillager]

I doubt it. Electric vehicles are rather heavy and given the size of many modern cars I doubt there could be a guarantee of fitting every Land Rover or whatever into a train with enough room to get out, given the British loading gauge. Besides, charging electric cars is by no means as problematic as some people make out, if anything it's more convenient than refuelling, a Motorail comeback would have nothing to do with electrification.

 

[Irascible]

I doubt it. Electric vehicles are rather heavy and given the size of many modern cars I doubt there could be a guarantee of fitting every Land Rover or whatever into a train with enough room to get out, given the British loading gauge. Besides, charging electric cars is by no means as problematic as some people make out, if anything it's more convenient than refuelling, a Motorail comeback would have nothing to do with electrification.

Tell that to anyone with on-street parking...

But nice thought, not practical with the size of modern cars, unless perhaps we extended some of the routes cleared for large containers or something.

 

[edwin_m]

A Tesla Model 3 is 4.7m long. The Caledonian Sleeper is about 370m long exclusive of locomotive, limited by platform length at the stations it serves. So if the entire length was given over to Motorail it would carry 78 Teslas, or actually less because some EVs are longer and there would be gaps between the wagons and probably odd spaces left over that weren't big enough to fit a car. That's a coach and a bit of seated accommodation.

When the railways are full to capacity, do we really want to devote a valuable path to a train carrying only 70ish people and their vehicles? We'd also need some 125mph flats or vans to carry the cars.

 

[30907]

Simply can't fit an operationally practical Motorail service in the normal UK loading gauge.

A single-deck motorail was and is operationally practical, but obviously far less economic than double-deck. And even double deck motorail has become pretty rare.

Electric vehicles are rather heavy and given the size of many modern cars I doubt there could be a guarantee of fitting every Land Rover or whatever into a train with enough room to get out, given the British loading gauge.

You only need the driver to be able to get out, and if necessary you could have a side platform alongside the loading track. Adds to cost, though.
Easier with single deck - walking back along the top deck of a DDm wagon is a little scary

Essentially, Motorail is only remotely viable where long distances are involved (eg Hamburg to Basel, which AIUI works because of Scandinavians travelling to he Med not North Germans travelling to the Alps), or where the night train is subsidised (Austria). (Or there is a mountain chain in the way, as in Switzerland.)

 

[Bald Rick]

Who would make the investment?

Nobody, as they would lose all their money.

Also finding a loco that could provide half a megawatt of hotel power to charge the cars might be interesting!

 

[HSTEd]

Also finding a loco that could provide half a megawatt of hotel power to charge the cars might be interesting!

Pretty sure the ETH index of a Class 92 is well over 100 (500kW)!

 

[tomuk]

Time to bring back Rail Drive? Do any of the TOCs still have car hire agreements? The last I remember was a dedicated Europcar telephone next to some station payphones.

 

[edwin_m]

Time to bring back Rail Drive? Do any of the TOCs still have car hire agreements? The last I remember was a dedicated Europcar telephone next to some station payphones.

There's a car hire office within Nottingham station and another one just across the road... I think the actual cars are driven in from somewhere less central.

 

[Bald Rick]

There’s car hire ‘desks’ in, or very close, to many stations.

 

[Basil Jet]

For long drives the driver has to have a break in the middle, during which he isn't moving, so I was thinking that a mobile service station might work, allowing him to eat some food, and recharge his vehicle while still moving. One terminal would be near the southern Carlisle motorway junction, and the other would be on the north side of Preston at the first M55 junction.

 

[PTR 444]

For long drives the driver has to have a break in the middle, during which he isn't moving, so I was thinking that a mobile service station might work, allowing him to eat some food, and recharge his vehicle while still moving. One terminal would be near the southern Carlisle motorway junction, and the other would be on the north side of Preston at the first M55 junction.

Would this mobile service station travel via road or rail?

 

[fishwomp]

Great ideas

Could develop this into:

1. Motorrail on 25kV electrified lines.. using panto-cars from class 319 [all good ideas start with a 319, honest] along with regular loco-haulage for Gricers with Teslas (is there a Facebook group for them?)

2. Using Tesla's to store regenerative-braking power on 3rd rail (class 319 pick-up shoes for the win) - solves the problem of regen not being useful on 3rd rail if no-one to pick up the energy

3. Most charging locations can't do more than a handful of cars - local power infrastructure work is expensive. Take one standard 319 panto-car, fit 30 superchargers to it, and park it at any wired siding next to a car-park - problem solved! Panto-car can be moved anywhere - so also able to handle temporary demand at large events.

(3) could be a winner!

 

[Basil Jet]

Would this mobile service station travel via road or rail?

Rail. I deliberately picked locations that could be efficiently reached by road from Central Scotland and southern England. Why, is the WCML already full between Preston and Carlisle?

 

[Bald Rick]

Why, is the WCML already full between Preston and Carlisle?

Pretty much, yes.