- Riviera Trains
Riviera Trains Limited is a
railway spot-hire company, based atCrewe inCheshire . It owns a large fleet of Class 47 locomotives, which have been hired to both passenger and charter train operators. One of their main customers wasArriva Trains Wales , which used locomotives to haulManchester toHolyhead services till February 2005. The fleet is also used to haul "Foot-ex" specials as well as other Riviera Requirements.Riviera hires to Train Operating Companies such as
Arriva Trains Wales ,Direct Rail Services ,First Great Western , First GB Railfreight,First ScotRail ,EWS , Freightliner, Grand Central, Serco Rail andVirgin Trains .Riviera supplied Virgin Cross-Country with a "stand-by" train set made up of Mark 2F vehicles. This contracted ended when Arriva took over the franchise.
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 2005 the company acquired
Pathfinder Tours .Locomotives
One of Riviera locomotives, 47839, was the first to be painted in the corporate Oxford Blue livery. Most of the fleet retained the livery of their previous operators until late-
2006 . 47805, 47843 & 47848 received the Riviera touch of Oxford blue in 2006 leaving 47812 painted into BR Two Tone Green in lateNovember 2005 to match its sister no. 47815. InSeptember 2006 , all operational Class 47 locomotives, with the exception of nos. 47769 and 47815, were due to be hired toDirect Rail Services for a period of one year. However this turned out to be just over 4 months hauling flask trains. In May 2007 Riviera bought another locomotive - class 47747.Coaching stock
Riviera owns the largest fleet of vehicles for spot hire or charter work in the UK. They can create up to 7 charter train sets and several sets for TOC work. They are now the leading provider of charter trains to the rail tour industry and Train Operating Companies.
They launched a rake of Mark 2F coaching stock early in 2006, called "The Great Briton". All the coaches are in the livery of Oxford Blue and Cream, which were hand painted to high standards at LNWR Crewe. The eight coaches are named after famous Britons, such as Shakespeare and Churchill and feature hand painted Union Jacks on each side of the coaches which is very distinctive. In January 2007 "The Great Brition" luxury Pullman train set took over the operation of the 'Blue Pullman' for Hertforshire Railtours, formally part of Victa Westlink Rail.
On April 11th 2008 Riveira launched a rake of
British Rail Mark 1 coaching stock named "The Royal Scot". This set has had over £500,000 spent on refurbishing and repainting each vehicle to high standards.Charter Alliance
On March 12, 2007, EWS Network and Riviera Trains announced the formation of
Charter Alliance as a "a dedicated provider of reliable and high class specialist passenger rail services". Charter Alliance was to start operations on April 1st, 2007, with four charter trains for football fans being the first ones operated by the new alliancePress release "Charter Alliance launched for quality specialist passenger rail services" [http://www.ews-network.co.uk/media_press6.html] ] . EWS Network provided itself charter trains and operates theRoyal Train .Fleet details
References
External links
* [http://www.riviera-trains.co.uk Riviera Trains website]
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