A car shuttle train, or (sometimes) car-carrying train, is a shuttle train used to transport accompanied cars (automobiles), and usually also bicycles and other types of road vehicles, for a relatively short distance.
Car shuttle trains usually operate on lines passing through a rail tunnel and connecting two places not easily accessible to each other by road. On car shuttle train services, the occupants of the road vehicles being carried on the train usually stay with their vehicle throughout the rail journey.
As such, car shuttle train services are to be contrasted with Motorail services. Unlike a car shuttle train, an Auto Train or Motorail train is a passenger train on which, except in France,[1] passengers can take their car or automobile along with them. On Motorail trains, passengers are carried in normal passenger cars or in sleeping cars on longer journeys, while the cars or automobiles are loaded separately into autoracks, car carriers, or flatcars that normally form part of the same train.
- ^ In France, Motorail passengers and their vehicles are transported on two separate trains.