Cars through Channel Tunnel?
 

Is there a rail service which allows you to take a car from London to Paris through the Channel Tunnel? The Eurostar website only mentions passenger services, whilst the EuroTunnel Site lists car services between the UK and the French Channel ports only. But can you put your car on the train in London and ride the train to Paris, and just drive from there?

No, there is no car service all the way from London to Paris. You need to drive to Folkestone and you and your car will get off near Calais.

Joe.. <BR> <BR>You don't need to book in advance. You just drive up to a toll booth (rather like on a Tollway road), pay and then drive onto the next train. The trains are very frequent - the whole thing from arriving Folkestone to leaving Calais takes about an hour.

The Eurostar service is passenger only from London to Paris/Brussels The service for cars etc is called Le Shuttle and runs from Folkestone to Calais. Although there is no necessity to book ahead, most people do and at times it is very busy indeed. You may find you have a very long wait. We have found sometimes it is worth going for Club Class because you are then guaranteed to get on the next train. It is worth it if there are long queues.

Joe, <BR>Just curious; is the car you're speaking of your own or a rental? Why do I ask? If it's a British rental with a British configuration, once on mainland Europe you'll be driving a car with the steering wheel on the "wrong" side and headlight beams focused in the wrong direction, two conditions not conducive to relaxing, safe driving. If you are renting, you can arrange with your rental company to drop the British auto off in England and pick up a replacement in France; it's an option you might want to explore.

If you are taking a British car over to Mainland Europe, you will need to use headlight deflectors - inexpensive adhesive pieces of plastic. They stop your headlights dazzling oncoming traffic.

This may sound silly but where do the passengers ride? In their car or in separate passenger compartments and what is the cost? Thanks in advance for the info.

Wes - we`re Brits who are working in Latin America. We`ll be renting a car in the UK. The option of renting a LHD car in France is appealing but the attraction in keeping the same RHD British car is that we can pile in all the necessary things for our toddler (a mountain of stuff!) and simply forget about it until we reach our destination in France. Driving on either side doesn`t bother us. I`ve been switching back and forth for nearly 20 years now. <BR> <BR>Thanks too to the others on this thread. As usual, you can ask anything and someone will know the answer here.! <BR> <BR>Joe

Vicki.. <BR> <BR>On Le Shuttle you basically stay in your car, once you have driven it onto the train. You can get out and stand around it, but you are travelling in a covered freightcar, with no "normal" passenger accomodation to sit and see the view. Come to think of it there is no view either, as you are in a tunnel the whole way.

Does anyone know how the cost of putting your car on the train stacks up against taking one of the ferries? <BR> <BR>We are planning on going from England to France in May. We may be able to borrow a car but we might have to rent. I read recently that the insurance coverage provided by our credit card is only good for 15 days or less. <BR> <BR>Has anyone else heard about this? <BR> <BR>Thanks, <BR>Andrew