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Night Riviera
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The Night Riviera is a sleeper train service operated by First Great Western. It is one of only two remaining sleeper services on the railway in Great Britain (the other being the Caledonian Sleeper). It runs two trains per night, six days a week (Sun-Fri) between London Paddington and Penzance, with one train departing in each direction.
service is usually hauled by one of four dedicated Class 57 locomotives.
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The Night Riviera is a sleeper train service operated by First Great Western. It is one of only two remaining sleeper services on the railway in Great Britain (the other being the Caledonian Sleeper). It runs two trains per night, six days a week (Sun-Fri) between London Paddington and Penzance, with one train departing in each direction.
Service
The service is usually hauled by one of four dedicated Class 57 locomotives. The locomotives and rolling stock did not receive First's new corporate colours of blue and pink in 2000, but have now mostly been painted in the new "Dynamic Lines" livery and "Power Car Blue" to match the HST stock. In 2006 the Mark 2 day coaches were replaced with newer Mark 3 day coaches formerly operated by Virgin Trains, with the green and gold colours applied to match the rest of the train, but now repainted into house colours. The rolling stock was refurbished at Wolverton Works during 2007-2008, the locomotives receiving remedial attention and a repaint at Brush-Barclay in Kilmarnock.
The westbound service operates with headcode 1C99; the reverse as 1A98.
Route
Unlike the other UK sleeper service, Night Riviera operates along a single route. From London Paddington, the train stops first at Reading, then passing non-stop via the Reading to Taunton Line, it calls at Taunton, Exeter St. Davids, Newton Abbot, Totnes and Plymouth. Following Plymouth, the train calls at Liskeard, then all stations down the Cornish Main Line to the terminus at Penzance.
The trains may be diverted between Reading and Taunton for engineering work or other reasons via one of the following routes:
- Didcot, Swindon, and Bristol
- Newbury, Trowbridge, and Bristol
- Didcot, Swindon, Melksham, and Westbury
Amenities
The Night Riviera operates Standard Class only. Passengers pay standard fares, with extra charges for sleeping berths (a single berth is more expensive per person than a double berth). Sleeper passengers receive the following amenities:
- Dedicated steward to provide an at-seat food and beverage service
- Air-conditioned sleeper berths
- A toiletry pack
- Morning wake up call
- Newspaper and breakfast
- Use of First Class Lounge on arrival in Paddington, including refreshments
- Use of showers for sleeper berth passengers upon arrival at Paddington.
- Free taxi transfer from Paddington to St Pancras International for Eurostar passengers
The Night Riviera was also responsible for pulling the last Motorail service on British railways; the Friday Night Riviera had special carriages capable of accommodating a number of cars which were pulled as part of the train. This service was only available in the summer from May to September, but was permanently withdrawn after 2005.
History
Sleeping car trains began in the United Kingdom in the 19th Century, and provision of sleeping berths between Cornwall and London dates back to the Great Western Railway.
The Night Riviera name was coined in the mid 1980s by British Rail to complement the daytime Cornish Riviera and coincided with the introduction of Mk3 air-conditioned sleeping cars on this service. Due to the different departure times, the first Night Riviera was the 21:15 departure from Penzance, hauled by a class 47 locomotive.
In 1978 twelve people died and thirteen people were injured in the Taunton sleeping car fire.
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