Queen's £15k train ticket to Wolverhampton
The royal train made a total of 13 journeys costing more than £10,000 in a year – at a total expense of around a quarter of a million pounds, it has been revealed.
The shortest distance covered in one journey was 140 miles, from London Euston to Wolverhampton. The trip was made by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in October 2014 and cost £15,956, or roughly £114 a mile. The cost of a standard anytime rail ticket from Euston to Wolverhampton is currently £88.50. The most expensive journey was £30,197.
This was when the train was used to transport the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in April 2014 from Windsor to Haverfordwest, and then to Ystrad Mynach in South Wales.
A total of £256,652 was spent in the 12 months leading up to March 31 this year on journeys by the royal train, according to the 2014-15 annual report and accounts for the royal household.
This is an increase on 2013-14 of £71,402, or 39 per cent.
Of the 13 individual journeys costing more than £10,000, six were made by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh together, six were made by Prince Charles, and one by the Queen alone.
The longest journey was from London Euston to Elgin, a distance of around 600 miles in total.
A royal train has been in operation in the UK since 1842.
The exact number and combination of carriages varies according to the duration of the journey and the identity of its occupants at the time.
The saloon cars currently used by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have been in service since 1977.
The Queen's saloon has a bedroom, bathroom and a sitting room with an entrance which opens on to the platform.
The Duke of Edinburgh's saloon has a similar layout, together with a kitchen.
The royal train is managed by Network Rail.
The Crown Estate also released its annual accounts today and figures showed it had another record-breaking year, with profits of just over £285 million, up 6.7 per cent on the previous year.
The amount of the Sovereign Grant is derived from 15 per cent of the profits from the multi-billion pound Crown Estate – a portfolio of lands, properties and assets like the entire UK seabed.
The funds are allocated two years in arrears, so in the 2016-17 financial year it is expected the grant will be £42.7m.
Annual expenditure has risen £3.6m, or 11 per cent, over the past five years.