Hi,

I recently discovered that First Great Western operates a motorail service
to Penzance. Came as a bit of a surprise - i thought motorail had gone out
with BR!

Now, this service starts from Paddington, which means the cars are loaded
there. However, i can't imagine quite how this is done - i've been to
Paddington many times, and never seen a car queueing at the gateline. The
motorail website says "cars need to be loaded well in advance of the
advertised departure time to allow the Motorail section to be attached to
the main train", which indicates that there's a separate loading area for
cars, following which the car cars (as it were) are coupled to the
passenger cars between loading and departure. Is that the case? Where do
the cars board? Where is the coupling done? How, generally, does this all
work?

The prices are actually pretty reasonable - a car plus a driver, who
spends the night in a seat in standard class, costs 103 UKP for a return;
it's 137 UKP if the driver wants a bunk. Given that a super advance return
just for a foot passenger is 54.00, that's really fairly cheap. I'm
thinking my next holiday might be down in Cornwall; now all i need is a
car ...

Thanks,
tom

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