Something different: DB AutoZug

csd

And now for something a bit different -- a trip on a German motorail train, the DB AutoZug. These trains ply their way from points in Germany south to France, Austria, and Italy. They combine car carrying wagons and sleeper cars for their passengers, and are a handy way to shave a big chunk off a drive down to the Med.

You save a night or two in a hotel and a couple of fuel tanks' worth of petrol, but the service isn't that cheap. If you are flexible on dates and routes you'll find a sleeper for two and your car will run to about €450, otherwise expect to pay €700 or more! You can save a bit by using couchettes rather than a dedicated sleeping compartment for yourself, but this isn't as comfortable.

I've used the DB AutoZug twice: once in 2008 and again earlier this month. What follows is a description of a typical journey. The photos are taken from a Hamburg to Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) trip in 2008 and a Dusseldorf - Schwarzach (Austria) trip this month. I used the Internet to book the tickets on both occasions -- this is straightforward enough but you need to know the exact dimensions of your vehicle. Get it wrong and you might find the top of your car chopped off by an Alpine tunnel or (more likely) be denied boarding!

Let's start the trip.

1. This is the queue to board after check-in in Hamburg Altona station. They will ask to see your tickets and the car's Vehicle Licence Certificate (Fahrzeughschein in German). The German equivalent has the vehicle weight on it, which is important for them to verify for loading purposes, but the Irish version doesn't -- I wasn't asked any questions though.

Once ready to board, any passengers will be asked to get out and wait in the station while the driver brings the car around to the loading point. In Altona, this involves driving through the station concourse itself, before heading onto the platform and up onto a car carrier. In Dusseldorf there is a separate vehicular entrance so you don't risk running down any errant train passengers!

IMG_0785.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

2. Once you've parked your car on the car carrier, it's time to offload anything else you'll need for the night, and the AutoZug staff will secure your vehicle for the journey. Don't forget to take your aerial off! It's best to lock up using the key rather than the remote fob -- this won't arm the alarm, which would undoubtedly go off with the motion of the train! This pic is in Dusseldorf.

Loading up the Autozug in Dusseldorf. by csd75, on Flickr

3. Here's our sleeping car at Hamburg-Altona, with the attendant chatting to one of the other passengers. Each sleeping car has an attendant, who makes sure everything is ok and carries out such other duties as converting your compartment from sleeper to daytime mode, takes your breakfast order, and wakes you in the morning.

IMG_0793.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

4. A view inside the corridor of a sleeper car. The door immediately in front of us to the left is the attendant's berth.

IMG_0795.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

5. Here's our compartment set up for day use. The Hamburg train leaves at around 14.00, so there's a large daytime portion to the journey and the compartments start off in daytime mode. The Dusseldorf - Schwarzach sleeper departs at 21.55, so the sleeping compartments start off in night mode and the attendant will switch it to day mode in the morning.

IMG_0796.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

6. Sleeper compartment set up for double occupancy at night. There are actually three berths here, with a slightly more cramped berth arrangement being employed if all three are required. There's just the two of us (plus dog this month!), so the bunks are set up in double-occupancy mode, which gives us more headroom in bed.

IMG_0828 by csd75, on Flickr

7. A view of the end of our train as we round a sharp curve outside Hamburg.

IMG_0805.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

8. The Hamburg - Bolzano - Verona train calls in Dusseldorf to add additional passengers and cars. Our loco basks in the evening sun waiting for the shunting to complete.

IMG_0807.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

9. European rolling stock is festooned with numbers and codes. The sequence left (starting with 61) will be familiar as the UIC vehicle identity code: 61 denoting a fixed-gauge EuroCity vehicle, 80 for Deutsche Bahn and 72 standing for a 12-berth sleeper compartment. WLABmz is the specific vehicle type (WLAB is a sleeping car, with mz denoting specifics of this particular model. 200 is the maximum speed (in km/h of course), and the anchor symbol means it meets RIC standards for cross-border and train ferry service.

IMG_0812.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

10. Platforms 19 and 20 at Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof are used for AutoZug trains. The consist from Hamburg as arrived on the left (platform 19), and the car carriers from Dusseldorf are waiting on platform 20 on the right. The loading area is behind these wagons on the right.

IMG_0822.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

11. There are four classes of travel. At the top of the tree are the deluxe sleepers. These include their own private shower. Regular sleepers (like ours shown) have a washbasin and can share the communal shower at the end of the carriage. Couchettes are more akin to lie-flat airline beds in that you don't undress for them. There can be up to six berths in a single compartment, so you won't get much privacy unless you book the whole compartment. Finally there are seats - not recommended as you've no privacy and no door to lock.

IMG_0827.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

Longer journeys (such as Hamburg - Italy) will have a restaurant car attached for at least part of the trip. Shorter trips with night time departures won't have a restaurant car, but your sleeper carriage attendant can serve drinks and light snacks to your compartment.

To be continued…

csd

12. Next morning, your compartment is converted to day mode and you have breakfast served to you in your compartment (for sleeper passengers), and you can check out the scenery passing by your window. Trains for Verona and Bolzano/Bozen are routed over the Brenner pass, with some stunning scenery. This is the view of the Brenner Autobahn as we approach the pass.

IMG_0836.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

13. A RoRo freight train for tractor/trailers seen at Brenner. I wonder if these would work in Ireland

IMG_0847.JPG by csd75, on Flickr


14. When we arrive at Bolzano/Bozen, some of the car carriers are detached for shunting to the loading/unloading sidings. The remaining carriers continued on to Verona. A similar exercise happens in Munich with the Dusseldorf - Munich - Schwarzach train.

IMG_0856.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

15. An Italian shunter prepares to take our car carriers to the unloading sidings in Bolzano.

IMG_0857.JPG by csd75, on Flickr


IMG_0864.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

16. Here's the Austrian equivalent doing the same in Schwarzach-St Veit.

IMG_2035 by csd75, on Flickr

17. A double-headed electric freight containing curtainside trailers heads up towards Brenner while we're waiting in Bolzano.

IMG_0870.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

18. Bolzano has purpose-built unloading platforms for the AutoZug.

IMG_0900.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

19. The cars made it to Schwarzach in one piece!

IMG_2037 by csd75, on Flickr

20. Within 20 minutes of arriving, we're ready to unload (Bolzano).

IMG_0901.JPG by csd75, on Flickr

21. Here's a video of driving off the train at Schwarzach-St Veit in Austria. Not much room for mistakes here!

Hope you enjoyed! More info and booking at the DB AutoZug website.

/csd

Banjoxed

Fantastic pair of posts! Very well done.

dowlingm

Amtrak has a somewhat similar service - the AutoTrain. It runs from Lorton, Virginia to Sanford, Florida. Presumably nobody wants to figure out how to load cars in Washington or New York

Nice trip report there csd.

metrovick001

Excellent post CSD.

yachtsman

I can't imagine IE in charge of such an operation. Its like another world.

MGWR

dowlingm wrote: »

Amtrak has a somewhat similar service - the AutoTrain. It runs from Lorton, Virginia to Sanford, Florida. Presumably nobody wants to figure out how to load cars in Washington or New York

Vertical clearance can be a bit tricky there, and the passenger cars are Superliners, so those are 16 feet tall and for low platforms only; the autorack cars used to transport automobiles are considerably taller. (Now if the old Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's "Royal Blue" route to Jersey City, New Jersey were still open, it may be possible; after all, there's nothing but Liberty State Park there these days, and much of that needs to be redeveloped due to polluted land.)

Wikipedia has a list of Motorail services around the world.

BTW, this is a recent picture of Amtrak's Auto Train.

murphaph

I'd love to have a good enough excuse to try this out but from Berlin there's only one route as far as Munich (you can drive that in 6 hours presently, much faster than the overnight train so just not worth it). Looks like a great way to travel though.

csd

murphaph wrote: »

I'd love to have a good enough excuse to try this out but from Berlin there's only one route as far as Munich (you can drive that in 6 hours presently, much faster than the overnight train so just not worth it). Looks like a great way to travel though.

Ah, where there's a will there's a way!

It would probably make most sense for you to drive to Dusseldorf and catch a train for Italy or southern France from there. I see there's a Spezial fare -- two berths in a couchette and your car to Narbonne in France for €349 on October 18th

/csd

jma

My grandparents, my girlfriend and I travelled on one of these years ago. It was a night train going to Italy. We left either from Cologne or Dusseldorf; can't remember. We then drove down to a small villa we had booked in the Chianti region, and we used the car to drive through Tuscany. It was pure sight-seeing and the likes, but a great trip. I don't remember it being as expensive as that, but I know the trains in Germany, generally, have gone crazy expensive, sometimes costing more than a flight from Dublin to Germany.

jester77

Nice post. Altona is just around the corner for me. Another interesting train that departs from here is the one to Copenhagen, the train boards a ferry at Puttgarden and you can get out of the train and chill on the ferry for the short trip across. The train then gets off the ferry at Rødby and continues onto Copenhagen.

keithclancy

jma wrote: »

My grandparents, my girlfriend and I travelled on one of these years ago. It was a night train going to Italy. We left either from Cologne or Dusseldorf; can't remember. We then drove down to a small villa we had booked in the Chianti region, and we used the car to drive through Tuscany. It was pure sight-seeing and the likes, but a great trip. I don't remember it being as expensive as that, but I know the trains in Germany, generally, have gone crazy expensive, sometimes costing more than a flight from Dublin to Germany.

It usually always costs more to get the train in Germany with the likes of Germanwings and Air Berlin.

Terrontress

I'd love to do a trip like that. I'd even love to do a European sleeper, with or without the car. Having breakfast in my bedroom as the Alps glide past sounds like an age of romantic travel no longer associated with rail travel.

Fred Swanson

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