Riviera Trains Limited is a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

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. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. Th ...

and Eastleigh in England.

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. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

and Eastleigh.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 Abellio, it operated the ScotRail franchise from 1 April 2015, taking over from predecessor First ScotRail. ...

Arriva Trains Wales Arriva Trains Wales (ATW; cy, Trenau Arriva Cymru) was a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains that operated the Wales & Borders franchise. It ran urban and inter-urban passenger services to all railway stations in Wales, ...

, Direct Rail Services,

First Great Western Great Western Railway (GWR) is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.First ScotRail, Grand Central,

Virgin CrossCountry Virgin CrossCountry was a train operating company in the United Kingdom operating the InterCity CrossCountry passenger franchise from January 1997 until November 2007. Virgin CrossCountry operated some of the longest direct rail services in t ...

and Wales & Borders. Riviera also hire to rail tour customers who include: The Branch Line Society,

Compass Tours Compass Tours was a UK railtour organiser specialising in excursions with heritage diesel locomotives such as the Class 37, Class 40 and Class 47 and also using Steam Engines such as the LMS Black 5. A pro-rail company, Compass Tours heavil ...

, Kingfisher Railtours, Past Time Rail, Pathfinder Tours 2006, SRPS, The Railway Touring Company and UK Railtours. In 2006 Riviera Trains acquired

Pathfinder Tours Pathfinder may refer to: Businesses * Pathfinder Energy Services, a division of Smith International * Pathfinder Press, a publisher of socialist literature Computing and information science * Path Finder, a Macintosh file browser * Pathfinder ( ...

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.Riviera Trains buys main line diesels ''The Railway Magazine'' issue 1185 January 2000 page 12 Two further Class 47s (47805 and 47839) were acquired from Porterbrook in 2002.Riviera Trains acquires two Class 47s from Porterbrook ''Rail'' issue 448 13 November 2002 page 58 Further Class 47s were purchased from Harry Needle Railroad Company (47575 and 47769) and Porterbrook (47812, 47815, 47829, 47843, 47847 and 47848).Riviera buys two more 47s ''Rail'' issue 492 21 July 2004 page 27Seven more 47s for Riviera ''Rail'' issue 501 24 November 2004 page 26 After long periods with little use, the 47s were sold to Direct Rail Services, Harry Needle Railroad Company and

Rail Operations Group Rail Operations Group (ROG) specialises in ad-hoc movement of rolling stock for rolling stock companies and train operating companies as well as locomotive spot hire services and the operation of charter trains. It has its headquarters and main ...

between 2011 and 2016.More 47s for DRS ''Today's Railways UK'' issue 118 October 2011 page 58ROG buys five Riviera Class 47s ''Today's Railways UK'' issue 176 August 2016 page 60

Carriages

Riviera Trains commenced with one set of Mark 1 carriages. It later purchased further Mark 1s and Mark 2s.Arriva Mk 2 coaches leave South Wales ''Rail Express'' issue 210 November 2013 page 55 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 ( 26 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 nation ...

and

Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...

, and feature hand painted

Union Jack The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

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 Hertfordshire Rail Tours was a company that operated charter trains in the United Kingdom. Founded in Hertfordshire by John Farrow, most of its trains started from London Terminals. The company was purchased by FM Rail in September 2005. FM Rai ...

after

FM Rail FM Rail was a railway charter company based in Derby, England. The company was formed when spot hire company Fragonset Railways and charter operator Merlin Rail merged. It went into administration in 2006. History Fragonset Railways Fra ...

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