Belmond Britannic Explorer

The Belmond Britannic Explorer is a luxury sleeper train, launched in the United Kingdom in July 2025.^[1] It's based on the rolling stock of the former luxury train Belmond Grand Hibernian, which used to run in Ireland and Northern Ireland between 2016 and 2019.

Precedessor train

The Belmond Grand Hibernian was officially launched on 30 August 2016. On 18 February 2021 the ceasing of the operation was announced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2] The train had last run on 14 October 2019 and was suspended for all of 2020 owing to the pandemic.

The carriages have left Ireland in 2022, and stored within Great Britain.

Journeys

Three destinations are currently provided, starting always from London Victoria. The three-night journeys feature Cornwall, Wales and the Lake District, including the possibility of combining two of them into six-night journeys.^[3] A fourth route is scheduled for 2026.^[4]

Rolling stock

Carriages

The train consists ten Irish Mark 3 carriages, originally built by British Rail Engineering Limited at Derby Litchurch Lane Works for Córas Iompair Éireann between 1980 and 1989, and withdrawn in 2009. The initial refurbishment was done by Assenta Rail, and the layout of the carriages were mainly kept also during the second refit for this train. However, one sleeping car was remodeled with Grand Suite compartments - a comfort class featured also in Belmond's other overnight luxury trains Royal Scotsman and Venice Simplon-Orient-Express - and in another one a compartment for spa treatments of the British wellbeing brand Wildsmith.^[5]

Carriage number	Former CIÉ number	Former Grand Hibernian number and name	Layout
99110	7104	55 60 89-87 103-7 Kildare	Observation and bar car
99109	7169	55 60 88-87 102-0 Wexford	24-seat dining car
99108	7171	55 60 88-87 101-2 Sligo	20-seat dining car.
99107	7137	55 60 76-87 005-2 Kerry	A spa room, and three cabins in double and twin layouts, one of them PRM-accessible
99106	7149	55 60 76-87 004-4 Down	Four cabins in double and twin layouts
99105	7129	55 60 76-87 003-8 Waterford	Four cabins in double and twin layouts
99104	7158	55 60 76-87 002-6 Leitrim	Four cabins in double and twin layouts
99103	7116	55 60 76-87 001-8 Fermanagh	Three grand suites
99102	7130	55 60 89-87 110-2 Donegal	Staff sleeping car
99101	7601	55 60 99-87 104-3 Carlow	Generator car

Locomotives

For haulage of the train GB Railfreight's Class 66 No. 66748 was repainted into the carriages' livery.

In July 2025 Belmond and GBRf have agreed, to use from 2027 the Class 99 dual-mode locomotives for sustainability reasons.^[4]