PalQ

The British Royals have plans to order a 'Eurostar-style' new Royal Train to replace the antique from the 70s they are still using. (this from the Guardian newspaper) the 30 million pound train comes about as the royals plan to fly less and train more, including taking the train through the Chunnel to the Continent. Happy Rails Royals - if any of my tax money was going for this i might object, but being a train lover i love it. On second thought everytime i spend some money in UK i pay a hefty Value-Added-Tax so i might well be footing the bill!

Andre

Actually, I think the train's purchase will be financed through the sale of photos made with the new UK airport x-ray machines - see this thread:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34540670

TopMan

It has to rank as the next "London bust" and let's hope it doesn't go off the rails due to a leaf accumulation.

Andre

Considering British rail's safety record, this could be the end of the Windsors!

hansikday

If this is an all EU designed and built train it could be decades before its produced. Which foreign guest workers will be imported to do the job?

crefloors

Give the Royals a break...after all, they gave up the "yacht". LOL

PatrickLondon

If you read the story, you would have seen that this is still at the investigation stage and it's suggested it should be funded privately:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/st...347448,00.html

rkkwan

For a long time, many sets of "Nightstar" sleeper trains (some completed, some not) were stored after they scrapped the plan for sleeper trains between the UK and mainland Europe. They ended up selling them for dirt cheap to Canada's VIA, which is running them in Eastern Canada after extensive modification.

They should have just saved a set, and modified for the royals. Would have saved millions.

PalQ

PatrickLondon: Thanks for correcting my aggregious mistake about funding, article clearly states that there will be private funding and the new train will actually save taxpayers money because the Queen could then, with a fancier train, 'sleep overnight in a siding,' saving money as she and her entourage wouldn't have to shell or pounds for a hotel; potentially saving taxpayers, who apparently foot the bill for this, to up to 1 m pounds a night! Something seems neat about the Queen sleeping overnight on a siding! The train even may make the Queen some pounds as she plans to lease it out to corporate interests when not in royal use. What still perplexes me is why the Brits pay any expenses for what is probably one of the world's richest persons - the royals on the Dole!

Tallulah

PalQ: That's why they're rich, silly!

rkkwan

Why the British pay for the royals? Because it's good business! Tourism, tabloids, Princess Di... etc... They make lots of money due to the Royals.

The British Isles will be pretty dull and boring without them.

PalQ

well i don't think if you kicked them off the dole that they would disappear, the tabloids, to who they are very valuable, would make sure of that - let's see prince harry, the Sun might pay big bucks for revealations about his partying or for some dicey photos. Or if you stopped paying them that they couldn't survive. Doesn't Prince Charles, I actually shook his hand in Edinburgh a few years ago! own most of Cornwall or Devon or both - selling off that land would allow him to play polo and fox hunt for years. And i'm not necessarily buying this crap about royals making Brits money, at least enough to off-set their expenses - let's see what would Buckingham Palace bring at auction if it would revert to its natural heirs - the people of Britain. I dont' see the royal family having a claim to any of their wealth - it all should belong to the state and the royals relegated to the scrap heap of history - perhaps given a small pension, made to use national health clinics and given an apartment at Hampton Court Palace.
Please explain how the royals make Brits money to off-set their expenses, i just can't buy it, though an explanation may help.