Editing Autorack (section)

===United States===
A rail transport service where passengers can take their automobile along with them on their journey is known as an "[[Auto Train]]" in North America and as a "Motorail" in Australia and Europe. Passengers are carried in normal passenger cars or in sleeping cars on longer journeys, while their vehicles are loaded into autoracks, car carriers, or flatcars.

==== Auto-Train Corporation ====
On December 6, 1971, [[Auto-Train Corporation]] introduced a new and innovative rail transportation service for both passengers and their automobiles in the United States, operating scheduled service between [[Lorton, Virginia]] (near [[Washington DC]]) and [[Sanford, Florida]], near [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]].

The Auto Train offered an alternative to motorists who would otherwise have to drive their automobiles the {{convert|855|mi|km|0|adj=on}} distance along the East Coast of the United States. For vacationers with destinations at one or more of the many popular tourist attractions of Florida, the Auto Train service offered two advantages:
# avoid the long automobile ride on busy [[Interstate 95]] in [[Virginia]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], and [[Florida]]
# have the convenience of using their own automobile upon arrival.

From the beginning in 1971, the same year [[Amtrak]] began service on purely passenger routes in the United States, a key feature of Auto-Train's new service was the use of autoracks, which were former [[Canadian National]] transcontinental bi-level, enclosed autorack boxcars. These were augmented by new tri-level auto-racks built by Southern Iron & Equipment in 1976.

The privately owned service became very popular, but after 10 years of operation, and some costly attempts to expand the service elsewhere, such as a schedule between Florida and [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], Auto-Train Corporation entered bankruptcy, and service ended in April 1981.
 
====Amtrak's Auto Train====
[[File:Auto Train Autoracks.jpg|thumb|alt=Modern autoracks in use on Amtrak's [[Auto Train]]|Modern autoracks in use on Amtrak's [[Auto Train]]]]

[[Auto Train]] service between Virginia and Florida was resumed by [[Amtrak]] in 1983. Amtrak, a federally chartered corporation which operates most intercity passenger trains in the United States, continued to use Auto-Train's autoracks as an important portion of its service. These were supplemented with new bilevels built by Johnstown America in 2004 and 2005.

In current operation of Amtrak's Auto Train, there are two trains in operation simultaneously. The autoracks normally run on the rear of Auto Train [[Train#United States|consists]], which stretch over a three quarters of a mile, and are a familiar sight on [[CSX]] tracks on the east coast.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

====Whittier Shuttle====
In the mid-1960s, the [[Alaska Railroad]] began offering a vehicle shuttle service utilizing standard flat cars and [[Passenger car (rail)|passenger cars]]. Dubbed the "Whittier Shuttle," it operated in Alaska through the [[Portage Glacier Highway#Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel|Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel]] under Maynard Mountain between a stop just off the [[Seward Highway]] near the former town of [[Portage, Anchorage|Portage]] and the small port town of [[Whittier, Alaska]], which was also a port of call for the [[Alaska Marine Highway]] ferry system.

As traffic to Whittier increased, the shuttle became insufficient, leading to a project to convert the existing railroad tunnel into a single-lane combination highway and railway tunnel which was opened to traffic on June 7, 2000. At a length of {{convert|13300|ft|m|1}}, it is the second-longest [[highway]] [[tunnel]] and the longest combined rail and highway tunnel in [[North America]].