Royal Train

EDM number 587 in 1995-96, proposed by Gordon Prentice on 06/03/1996.

That this House notes that the Royal Train costs ú136.30p per mile to run when a member of the Royal Family is on board or when it is being positioned, and that it was used last year eight times by Her Majesty the Queen, 14 times by the Prince of Wales and on 10 other occasions by the Duke of Edinburgh, the Princess Royal and the Duchess of Kent; further notes that the train is now owned and operated by the American company, Wisconsin Central; recognises that the train does not have an energetic schedule yet is serviced by no less than 11 full-time staff and four part-time staff and that these figures exclude staff employed by Railtrack and other companies who do work related to the Royal Train in addition to their normal duties; considers that, unlike the rest of the nation's trains, the Royal Train is underemployed and that it should not be kept in a secure location in Buckinghamshire for over 300 days of the year when it could be carrying members of the travelling public; believes that for those reasons the Royal Train is a luxury the nation can no longer afford and should be dispensed with; and recognises that special arrangements would have to be made to transport members of the Royal Family by train as and when the occasion demanded.

This motion has been signed by a total of 20 MPs.