Prince Charles starts sustainable living rail trip

The Prince of Wales embarked on a tour of Britain yesterday to promote his sustainable living initiative, START.

Prince Charles sat on a collaps­ible red bike, which can be used by commuters, and tried Highland Brie from the Highland Fine Cheeses stall after arriving by car at Glasgow Central train station yesterday.

He donated a pair of green cord trousers to a Marks and Spencer and Oxfam stall at the station, which is also backing the START initiative.

The Prince will travel by the bio-fuel-powered Royal Train as he takes his message to communities from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Manchester and London.

Before boarding the Royal Train for the first leg of the national tour for his journey to Edinburgh, Prince Charles said: “What I hope to get across, to as many people as possible, is that however awful a predicament we face with climate change and the unsustainable use of the natural resources that keep us all alive, we aren’t going to get anywhere by telling everyone what they need to stop doing.

“There’s been quite enough of that in recent years and we all know what the reaction is.

“So this week is going to be about the things that we can all start doing for our own benefit, for the benefit of everyone who shares this planet with us and for the benefit of our children and their children too.

“The message of START is about encouraging and assisting everyone to take the first steps towards the world that we all want to live in. A clean, healthy, energy-efficient world that lives within the limits of its natural resources and that we can actually take pride in.

“So START is a simple and positive message. It doesn’t lecture or hector anyone about anything, nor does it attempt to frighten you.”

The Prince also said that he was supposed to get to Edinburgh before a group of six cyclists he met near platform 13 yesterday and that the biodiesel powering the train was “astonishingly eco-efficient used cooking oil”.

Peter Haymes, 32, who is from Carlisle and works with British Cycling, spoke to the Prince about the collapsible red bike.

After meeting the royal, he said: “He was asking me how the Brompton bike worked. It is British made. It’s an invention for commuters.

“I was very surprised when he sat on the bike.

“I was pleased that the seat was at the right height for him.”

The six people with Mr Haymes were cycling around 50 miles to Edinburgh to help highlight the work of their companies and the campaign with START and British Cycling.

Food, accommodation and travel on the train for the week will cost £50,000 in total.

Speaking during the train’s journey up to Glasgow from Carlisle yesterday, James Hygate, chief executive of Green Fuels, said: “Since 2007 we have provided biodiesel for the Royal Train that comes from waste vegetable oil. It is presently the only train in the world running on 100 per cent biodiesel.”

Other stops on the Prince’s national tour include Manchester, where he will see students behind a sustainable fashion show, and a team that has launched a beehive scheme in Newcastle.

In Nottingham, the Prince will have a cup of tea with a pensioner who had solar panels fitted on her roof.

The royal tour will then head to Carmarthen, Bristol, Newcastle, Todmorden, Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham, finishing in London on Friday.

The Duchess of Cornwall will join the tour for the Bristol and London visits.

The Prince was greeted by a sizable crowd which cheered his arrival at Edinburgh Waverley station.

He visited START’s Sustainable Scotland Festival in St Andrew Square, where he met organic food producers, bespoke local fashion companies and energy providers. He took the opportunity to buy his wife an £85 brown felt hat with a feather from the Fabhatrix stall.

Prince Charles also unveiled a poster on a Lothian bus designed by pupils from Liberton High School. He concluded his visit by officially opening the Start Living shop in St James Shopping Centre.

The advice shop offers information on sustainable living and is sandwiched between a travel agent and college advice centre.