Riviera Trains Limited was a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

spot-hire company based at

Burton-on-Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...

and

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the United Kingdom 2011 census, 2011 census. The town ...

in England. In September 2024, all of its assets were sold to West Coast Railways.

History

Riviera Trains was founded in 1995, initially based at Cranmore on the East Somerset Railway. It later relocated to

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120. ...

and

.About Riviera Trains Limited
Riviera Trains

Operations

Riviera Trains has provided rolling stock on both short and long term hire to many train operating companies including

Abellio ScotRail Abellio ScotRail, operating services under the name ScotRail, was the national train operating company of Scotland. A subsidiary of the Netherlands-based transport conglomerate Abellio (transport company), Abellio, it operated the ScotRail (br ...

, Arriva Trains Wales,

Direct Rail Services Direct Rail Services (DRS) is a rail freight company in Great Britain, and is one of the publicly owned railway companies in the United Kingdom. DRS was created as a wholly-owned subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) during late 19 ...

First Great Western First Greater Western, trading as Great Western Railway (GWR), is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that provides services in the Greater Western franchise area. It manages 197 stations and its trains call at over 270. GWR ...

First ScotRail First ScotRail was a train operating company in Scotland owned by FirstGroup. It operated the ScotRail franchise between October 2004 and March 2015. On 17 October 2004, First ScotRail took over operations from the incumbent franchisee, ScotRai ...

, Grand Central,

Virgin CrossCountry Virgin CrossCountry was a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operated the InterCity CrossCountry passenger franchise from January 1997 until November 2007. Along with the InterCity West Coast franchise held by a separate legal ...

and Wales & Borders. Riviera also hire to rail tour customers who include: The Branch Line Society, Compass Tours, Kingfisher Railtours, Past Time Rail, Pathfinder Tours 2006, SRPS, The Railway Touring Company and UK Railtours. In 2006 Riviera Trains acquired Pathfinder Tours.

Charter Alliance

On 1 April 2007 EWS and Riviera Trains launched Charter Alliance to provide charter services.

Fleet

Locomotives

In 1999 Riviera Trains purchased its first locomotives; 37029 and 47705. Two further Class 47s (47805 and 47839) were acquired from Porterbrook in 2002. Further Class 47s were purchased from Harry Needle Railroad Company (47575 and 47769) and Porterbrook (47812, 47815, 47829, 47843, 47847 and 47848). After long periods with little use, the 47s were sold to

, Harry Needle Railroad Company and Rail Operations Group between 2011 and 2016.

Carriages

Riviera Trains commenced with one set of Mark 1 carriages. It later purchased further Mark 1s and Mark 2s. Riviera Trains launched a rake of Mark 2F coaching stock early in 2006, called ''The Great Briton''. All carriages were in the livery of Oxford Blue and Cream, which were hand painted at LNWR Crewe. The eight coaches are named after famous Britons, such as

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

and Churchill, and feature hand painted

Union Jack The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags. It is sometimes a ...

s on each side of the coaches. In January 2007 ''The Great Briton'' luxury Pullman train set took over the operation of the ''Blue Pullman'' for Hertfordshire Rail Tours after FM Rail ceased. On 11 April 2008 Riviera launched a rake of Mark 1 coaching stock named ''The Royal Scot''. This set has had over £500,000 invested in it, with all the coaches painted in carmine and cream livery and featuring ''The Royal Scot'' carriage destination boards. Both the interior and exterior of the vehicles underwent a full refurbishment.

Past fleet

References

External links

Riviera Trains website
{{British Rail Spot Hire Companies, state=collapsed Railway companies established in 1995 1995 establishments in England British companies established in 1995