Sri Lanka, July 1 -- The Royal Train is being scrapped leaving the Royal Family in Britain without a dedicated set of railway carriages for the first time since the mid-nineteenth century.

It is being decommissioned after King Charles concluded the train was too expensive to run and it was being infrequently used.

The train - made up of nine carriages for the exclusive use of the Royal Family - was only in action twice in the last year but those two journeys cost nearly £90,000.

There are also undisclosed payments, estimated to be more than half a million pounds, for the maintenance and storage of the train during the rest of the year when it is not being needed.

The man in charge of finances at the Royal Household, James Chalmer...