Royal waiting room

Door of the royal waiting room in Brussels-Central railway station

A royal waiting room is a space at a train station set up for use by a royal family when they travel by train. According to protocol, a monarch never has to wait. So when they arrive somewhere, everything is already ready. However, this is not feasible when traveling by train. Stations are needed for regular train services and it is therefore not possible for royal trains to be placed along platforms for a royal family in advance. That is why some stations are equipped with a waiting room with some comfort and sufficient privacy. These waiting rooms are often found in stations near royal palaces.

Since royal persons started traveling by train in the second half of the 19th century, both royal private railroad cars and waiting rooms became available for them. When representative new stations were built near a palace during this period, royal waiting rooms were often built within them.

Belgium

Brussels-Central railway station in Belgium still has a royal waiting room. The room is rarely used by the Belgian monarchy and has transferred ownership to the National Railway Company of Belgium. Since then, the room has also been used for lectures and other socio-cultural activities. Other stations in Belgium with royal waiting rooms were Brussels-North railway station and Brussels-South railway station.

Denmark

In Denmark, three stations have a royal waiting room:

• Copenhagen Central Station
• Fredensborg railway station
• Gråsten railway station (no longer in use)

The Netherlands

The royal waiting rooms in the Netherlands are owned by Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways), not by the Dutch monarchy. They are part of the country's cultural heritage, so sometimes the rooms are opened for meetings, receptions or viewings. The following Dutch stations have or had a royal waiting room:

• Amsterdam Centraal (1889–present; near Royal Palace of Amsterdam; entrance side doors permanently opened with glass facades added for public viewing in 2018)
• Baarn (1874–present; near Soestdijk Palace; completely restored in May 2014)
• Den Haag HS (1893–present; near Huis ten Bosch and Noordeinde Palace; consists of seven rooms with a spacious staircase and vestibule)
• Den Haag SS (1870–1973; room dismantled and stored in 1973; on display in the Railway Museum (Netherlands) in Utrecht since the early 2000s)
• Apeldoorn (1876–1976; near Het Loo Palace; room demolished in 1976)
• Vlissingen (1894–1944; ferry service to the United Kingdom; destroyed in a bombing raid in 1944)

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  Exterior of the royal pavilion of Amsterdam Centraal station
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  Entrance to the royal waiting room at Amsterdam Centraal station
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  Exterior of the royal waiting room at Baarn railway station
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  Royal waiting room at the first platform of Den Haag HS
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  Royal waiting room from Den Haag SS on display in the Railway Museum (Netherlands)

Royal usage

In principle, the royal waiting rooms are used by members of the royal house and their guests. One of the last times Queen Beatrix used the waiting room at Den Haag HS station (Hollands Spoor) was on 31 October 2004, when she visited Breda with the Polish president to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of Breda's liberation by the Polish army. On Saturday 16 June 2007, Queen Beatrix used this waiting room when she travelled by royal train to Barendrecht station for the opening of the Betuweroute. On 31 March 2011, this room was opened to the public when the Freedom Train was christened in the presence of Prince Willem-Alexander. On 15 February 2013, the same waiting room was used by Prince Willem-Alexander and his family prior to a winter sports trip to Lech in Austria with a royal private railroad car coupled to the Alpenexpress. On 27 April 2017, the waiting room was again used by the now King Willem-Alexander and his family prior to King's Day 2017 in Tilburg, where they travelled by train.

United Kingdom

A number of stations in the United Kingdom are equipped with royal waiting rooms. All rooms are located in or near stations located at royal residences. The following British stations had a royal waiting room:

• Ballater railway station, in Ballater near the holiday home Balmoral Castle
• Windsor & Eton Riverside railway station
• Wolferton railway station