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I love this idea. Does anybody know whether it's been tried?

Sticking cars on trains is already happening. Some examples:
- Amtrak auto-train can take you from Washington D.C. to Orlando with your car on the train.
- Euro-Tunnel is the easiest way to get you and your car from the UK to France.

My personal suggestion for an ambitious transportation goal: Have auto-trains parallel to / in the median of 2-digit interstates, with stations every 50-100 miles and near major cities. Sure, that would be a big undertaking, but there would be significant benefits too: reduced wear on rural interstates, fewer accidents, fewer miles driven, a much-improved passenger rail system, less stress for passengers, etc. And for a really ambitious engineering project, see if we could invent a way to do the loading and unloading of cars on a train that's still moving, so that trains could provide service to, say, Syracuse NY without significantly slowing down the people trying to get from Buffalo to Albany.

Bollox. Checkin at airports (2hrs) is way longer than checkin at Eurotunnel (30 minutes). That's with both methods having security measures.

The Channel Tunnel is capable of carrying freight. If they are willing to transport nuclear material is another matter.

The Channel Tunnel is capable of carrying freight. If they are willing to transport nuclear material is another matter.

Eurotunnel anyone?

There is a way. :)