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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are embarking on a festive morale-boosting tour across the country aboard the Royal Train.
– Do members of the royal family have their own train?
Yes. The current Royal Train entered service in 1977 to mark the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, but the Royal Family has had their own dedicated train since Queen Victoria’s reign.
– What does it look like?
Its livery is a pristine, highly polished burgundy known as Royal Claret, sporting royal crests, with a black lining and gray roof.
It has nine cars – but not all of them are always in use.
– Is the interior very luxurious?
Surprisingly no. The royal train is more functional than sumptuous and its furniture is outdated.
Royal assistants once described it as being fitted with bathroom fixtures “ that you could find in Homebase or B&Q ” and the decor as “ very G-Plan ” which was popular in the 1960s. and 1970.
In 2002, officials at Buckingham Palace gave reporters rare insight in an attempt to destroy the perception that it was as lavish as the Orient Express.
– Who is using it?
Normally only the oldest royals – the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh before her retirement, and the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.
– Someone else?
The corgis accompanied the Queen – and also the Queen Mother – on board for trips to Sandringham or Balmoral.
There is also space for royal helpers and servants.
– What is this for?
For official engagements and for longer trips to the UK, such as Scotland or Norfolk, especially when the Queen’s children were young.
It allows members of the Royal Family to travel overnight and arrive rested, ready for a full day of engagements.
The monarch toured Britain on the train for his Golden Jubilee in 2002.
– Does the queen have her own car?
Yes. This is a 75-foot-long, air-conditioned and electrically heated private lounge car that contains a bedroom with a single bed, a living room, a desk for working on the go, dining areas and a bathroom. complete with a full size tub.
– What about the other cars?
The Duke of Edinburgh has a salon car of a similar design but with a kitchen, green curtains, matching chair cushions, and a brown rug.
Scottish landscapes and Victorian engravings from earlier train journeys hang in both sedans.
– And the Prince of Wales?
Heir to the Throne Charles has his own lounge car with a bedroom, bathroom, and study with a small desk and a blue and white floral sofa to match the fabric of the curtain.
Other cars include dining cars, a multi-purpose executive room with bedrooms, a junior staff sleeping car with bunk beds, and a car for escort and maintenance staff.
– And the food?
A royal chef usually joins the train, with meticulously planned menus.
– How often is the royal train used?
It depends on the royal journal.
Only three trips – two by the Prince of Wales and one by the Queen – were made on the Royal Train in the 2019/2020 financial year, but the total cost was over £ 63,000.
– How?
The cost – borne by the taxpayer – has long been controversial, and the train was nearly scrapped in 2013 when there were concerns that the rolling stock would need to be replaced.
In the Golden Jubilee year of 2002, train journeys cost £ 872,000.
Its service contract is also an additional £ 300,000 per year and it is maintained by the German company DB Cargo UK.
– How much does it cost per mile?
It depends on the trip. In 2017, a £ 18,317 trip from Charles of London to Cwmbran cost, according to PA news agency calculations, £ 130.84 per mile.
A standard anytime train ticket for the same journey at the time costs just £ 1.30 per mile.
– Can’t the royal family take a normal train?
Sometimes they do. The Queen usually travels first class to Sandringham for her winter vacation.
– Then why is there still a royal train?
Royal assistants believe it offers the best option for safety, security, efficiency, and minimum disruption to others.
The queen loves him too. It’s his preferred mode of transportation for privacy and convenience, and it removes the need for an exceptionally early start.
He travels often at night so as not to slow down other trains, and accommodation doesn’t need to be arranged for the Royal Family and, unlike helicopters, can work in bad weather.
– Is this the first time that William and Kate take the royal train?
Yes for Kate, but not for William. It will be their first time on the train together.
As a child William traveled to Balmoral and on the day of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales funeral in 1997, William, Charles, Prince Harry and the Spencer family made the trip from London to Princess Althorp’s ancestral home. by Royal Train for his funeral.
In 2003, William also traveled overnight on the train to Bangor with his father for a day of engagements in North Wales ahead of his 21st birthday.
– Who else used it?
The Duchess of Sussex accompanied the Queen to Cheshire on the Royal Train in 2018 for what was her first joint royal engagement with the monarch.
– Can I travel on the royal train?
No, it’s for the royal family only.
Sometimes dignitaries are allowed to use it. Cherie Blair organized a train trip for the wives of the leaders of the G8 group of countries in 1998.
– What about the engine?
The royal train is pulled by one of two class locomotives 67 – 67005 – The Queen’s Messenger and 67006 – Royal Sovereign, both decorated in a royal burgundy livery.
They run on environmentally friendly biofuel made from used vegetable oil.
A third Class 67-67026 – Diamond Jubilee – which features a silver livery, union flag and Diamond Jubilee logo was used in the 2012 celebrations.
– So it’s not pulled by a steam locomotive?
Only occasionally for special occasions.
– Were there not engines called Prince William and Prince Henry?
Prince William and Prince Henry – named after William and his brother Harry – were a pair of Royal Class 47 locomotives that pulled the Royal Train, but they were retired in 2004.
– When was the first royal train introduced?
A dedicated car was built for the royal family in 1840, with the Dowager Queen Adelaide, the widow of William IV, becoming the first to ride there.
– And Queen Victoria?
The Victorians believed that driving in fast trains could drive you crazy.
But Queen Victoria was finally persuaded to travel by rail in 1842, she made a 25-minute stint on the Royal Train from Slough to Paddington with Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who designed the Great Western Railway, straddling the plate. of foot.
– Has she been converted to train travel?
Yes. The 23-year-old wrote in her diary that the trip was ‘delicious and so quick’.
By 1869, she had ordered a set of private cars, decorated in luxurious blue silk and 23-karat gold like a palace on wheels.
– Have there been any controversial trips?
In 2000, a royal bodyguard discharged his gun on the train while the Queen was sleeping. The bullet hole can still be seen on a table in the staff dining car.
In 1980, a front-page article claimed that a young Lady Diana Spencer was sneaked into the Royal Train at night to be with Charles, three months before their engagement.
Charles, Diana, and her mother have always insisted the story was wrong.
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