OPERATING THE ROYAL TRAIN
What is the role of the Royal Train manager?
The Royal Travel Office (RTO) based at Buckingham Palace requires one person to be the point of contact on all matters relating to rail travel, whether it be for the operation of the Royal Train or indeed members of the Royal family travelling on service trains. That person will then co-ordinate all of their requirements and disseminate information within the railway industry on a ‘need to know’ basis.
Joining British Rail straight from school and getting a clerical C01 grade at Derby Locomotive Works in 1975, Geoff soon realised that paying invoices was not what he had joined the railway for.
He moved to a job in the TOPS office in Nottingham yard. This was more like it. He could see and hear trains through the window.
Geoff started railway correspondence courses then passed the rules and regulations exams. Subsequent promotions took him to regional control at Crewe, yard supervisor roles at Toton and Coalville and later train crew supervisor at Leicester and Nottingham.
In late 1998 Geoff received a phone call from EWS. They were looking for people with experience within the railway industry to join them at new offices in Doncaster. The following month he was working for EWS as a Royal Mail controller.
All went well for five years, but then disaster struck. The Royal Mail decided it didn’t need the railway any more and EWS lost more than 10% of its business, which led to a large scale re-organisation. Consequently EWS decided to concentrate its admin work in Doncaster and close its London Office.
David Brown, the then Royal Train manager (RTM), didn’t fancy a job ‘up north’, took one look at his pension figures and a vacancy arose. Geoff takes up the story…
My first visit to the Palace
Early in 2004 a meeting was arranged by David Brown to introduce me to Group Captain Tim Hewlett, director of royal travel (DoRT). He was responsible for all royal travel whether it be abroad, use of air transport or railway. He was an ex-RAF fighter pilot so loved all things airborne but when it came down to the railway he relied
