King breathes new life into the Royal Train
The King may breathe new life into the Royal Train by having its locomotives repainted with the King’s cypher, it has emerged.
The rebrand will raise hopes that the train can be saved from the scrapheap, more than two years after a review was launched into its future.
The fate of the Royal Train has hung in the balance since the death of Elizabeth II, when Buckingham Palace announced it would assess how often it was used in the new reign before considering a potential timetable for decommissioning.
Now, however, operator DB Cargo UK has confirmed that it is updating the train by replacing the late Queen’s cypher with that of the King after the renewal of its Royal Warrant.
The words “Queen’s Messenger” on the side, will also be replaced in honour of His Majesty.
Andrea Rossi, the company’s chief executive, said: “There’s always a great sense of occasion when the Royal Train is seen out on the mainline network, a sight we hope to see more frequently in the years to come, particularly with His Majesty’s focus on promoting sustainability and the environment.”
The rebrand coincides with the King’s first use of the train in almost a year.
Last week, he travelled to the Midlands on the train ahead of engagements at JCB in Rocester, Staffordshire, and at a brewery in Burton upon Trent. He is understood to have stayed on board overnight, having conducted various Duchy of Lancaster meetings in the area at the same time.
The Royal Train had not previously been used since last May and was only used twice in 2023.
It is phenomenally costly to run, accounting for some of the most expensive official royal journeys in any financial year.
But palace aides insist that it provides overnight security, mitigating other such costs, and remains an “effective and operationally efficient mode of transport”.
It is now powered exclusively by hydro-treated vegetable oil, a biofuel derived from waste products, making it one of the sustainable modes of travel.
The late Queen was particularly fond of the train. In 2017, she saved it from being scrapped after making it known that she believed it to be a cost-effective and convenient way for her family to travel.
However, her heirs appear less enamoured.
A review into the train’s future was launched after the late Queen’s death in 2022, the first indication that it had been earmarked for decommissioning.
The next June, Buckingham Palace aides, perhaps reluctant to let go of such a remnant of royal history, said the study had been extended.
A palace source said at the time that it was too early in His Majesty’s reign to determine what the future usage of the train might be.
Twelve months on, the picture was much the same, with aides stating that the previous financial year had been “exceptional” owing to the Coronation and the King’s cancer diagnosis, meaning that they had still not built up a picture of the train’s normal usage.
The King has used the train rarely since ascending to the throne – travelling on it from Ayr to Manchester in January 2023, when he stayed on board overnight, at a total cost of £31,571, and again during a solo two-day journey five months later, when he travelled to Pickering in North Yorkshire to mark the centenary of the Flying Scotsman. That trip cost £52,013.
His son, the Prince of Wales, has favoured it even less, last climbing aboard in June 2021, when he and the Princess of Wales joined the late Queen and the then Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall to travel to Cornwall for the G7 summit.
More recently, Prince William has travelled to several official engagements by public train, at a significantly reduced cost.
The Royal Train’s carriages are a mixture of bespoke conversions dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, with the King and Queen each enjoying a dedicated lounge, bedroom and bathroom.
The Class 67 is capable of running on hydro-treated vegetable oil as an alternative to diesel, with DB Cargo UK successfully trialling it on freight trains last year. This could reduce its trains’ CO2 emissions by up to 90 per cent.
The company has previously said it uses about 45 million litres of red diesel, which is subject to lower taxes than regular diesel used by motorists, every year.
