Royal Train: Rail industry insiders have explained why East Coast Main Line will not be used to transport Queen's coffin - and when the plans changed

As far as planning for the immediate aftermath of the Queen’s death goes, there may be one decision that is always tinged with regret about what could have been.

There has been a national outpouring of disappointment over the Palace and government’s joint decision not to use the Royal Train to transport the monarch’s coffin from Edinburgh to London via the East Coast Main Line. Instead, only Scots – in moving scenes – had their chance to say goodbye during her ‘progress’ from Balmoral to Edinburgh before her body is flown back to RAF Northolt in a military cargo aircraft.

Their position was all the more surprising as in the last revision of Operation London Bridge that was leaked to the media, in 2017, the Royal Train was a clear part of the plan for the Queen dying at her Scottish estate. In the intervening five years, things had clearly changed – but why?

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Rail industry experts and insiders have commented on why the U-turn could have been made, covering topics such as security, cost and logistics – and why ultimately many of the perceived obstacles could have been overcome.

The Class 67 locomotive "Queen's Messenger" which hauls the Royal Train went into service in 2004The Class 67 locomotive "Queen's Messenger" which hauls the Royal Train went into service in 2004
The Class 67 locomotive "Queen's Messenger" which hauls the Royal Train went into service in 2004

‘The Royal Train isn’t equipped to carry a coffin’

RAIL magazine editor Nigel Harris shared his thoughts on the debate on Twitter, and clarified that he has visited the Royal Train in its depot and that it is equipped to transport a coffin. The train isn’t owned by the Royal Family – the locomotives are loaned by DB Cargo and work regular freight routes the rest of the time. The carriages belong to Network Rail, and haven’t been modernised since the 1970s. One of the set, 2921, is a coach specially adapted as a hearse – it has wide access doors and a table that can rotate 90 degrees for the coffin.

‘There would be too many trespassers on the tracks’

The viewpoint shared by many commentators was that bystanders would enter restricted areas of the tracks along the route, risking safety and causing delays. It seemed that police had been influenced by well-documented incidents in recent years when enthusiasts had trespassed onto lines to photograph well-known steam locomotives, and feared this happening again.

However, Mr Harris spoke to senior rail industry managers who told them they were fully expecting the Royal Train to be deployed and were ‘taken aback’ by the change of plan. They told him that the schedule was for it to run at around 40mph, slowing to between 5-10mph at stations, and also stop at key locations. Other services would still be allowed to run on the network in the opposite direction – northbound – but would be stopped for the Royal Train to pass.

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Although there were concerns about security and cost – rail operators would have to be compensated for the loss of income caused by delays – the eventual conclusion prior to 2017 was that this was challenging but achievable. The change of mind seems to have come in 2020, when plans necessarily had to be revised in case the Queen died when Covid restrictions were still in place, meaning gatherings at stations would have been both unsafe and prohibited.

All of the main stations, where well-wishers would congregate, would have been policed to prevent dangerous obstacles being thrown onto the tracks, and a ‘sweeper’ locomotive would likely have run ahead of the Royal Train.

Railways author and columnist Christian Wolmar, writing in The Spectator, argued that disruptions for trespass incidents happen reasonably regularly on the network anyway.

"The decision, taken jointly by the Palace and the police, was apparently the result of fears that the passing of the train down the East Coast Main Line would create unprecedented policing problems. There were not only the usual worries about security, but also concern that rail enthusiasts would impeded the train’s progress by trespassing on the tracks in order to get the best photographs. They pointed to similar issues when the Flying Scotsman steam locomotive hauls charter trains around the country with trainspotters risking life and limb to get the perfect shot. Other concerns were that the platforms would become overcrowded and even that people would wave Union Jacks that might then become entangled on the overhead electrification wires.”

‘It’s too expensive’

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Mr Harris pointed out that the Royal Train is actually very good value for money and is relatively easy to secure. The carriages haven’t been refitted in decades and as previously mentioned, the diesel locomotives painted in royal livery perform other duties – including rescuing broken-down trains on the network and giving route familiarisation training for drivers.

Yet there’s no doubt the policing bill would have been high – large stations such as Edinburgh, Newcastle, York, Doncaster, Peterborough and King’s Cross would all need a heavy security presence. Local officers would have also had to deploy at various bridges along the route where people would have lined roads that may have had to be closed.

The decision to hand the responsibility to the RAF, which was approved by the Royal Family, is no doubt logistically simpler – but at the cost of denying swathes of the population the chance to say a final goodbye to their monarch as she passes through a large part of her former kingdom in the manner her forebears King George V and King George VI did. Both her grandfather and father died at the Sandringham estate, and their coffins were taken from Norfolk to London on the Royal Train.

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