The Queen took her first ride in a black cab as she supported the campaign for a cleaner environment.

But she did not hail a cab off the street - the taxi concerned belongs to the Duke of Edinburgh and is one of the four royal cars that have been converted to run on liquid petroleum gas (LPG).

The Queen is to ride in a black cab for the first time

"We believe this was her first time in a black cab" said a royal spokeswoman. "The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh normally travel together in one of the Rolls-Royces."

It was also her first official ride in a gas-powered car. LPG, also known as propane, is widely acknowledged to be a cheaper and cleaner fuel than petrol.

It's a gas

Buckingham Palace said the idea to convert some of the royal cars to gas was entirely down to the Queen and the Royal Household.

"The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh share the general concern about the environment and by being seen to take advantage of cleaner fuels, we hope to lead by example," said a palace spokesperson.

To officially launch the change to gas as a fuel the Queen visited the adapted cars at the Royal Mews on Thursday, where a special gas refuelling point had been installed. She was greeted by 60 children from the Young People's Trust for the Environment and Nature Conservation.

The Queen: going green

After unveiling the cars the Queen took a spin in the cab straight back to Buckingham Palace.

Green trend

The four cars in the royal fleet to be converted are the newest of the Rolls-Royces, a 1987 Phantom VI, one of the two Daimlers, a Rover 400 and the Duke of Edinburgh's Metrocab.

The Palace decision comes four months after the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced that the government would convert ministerial cars to run on gas.

Already there are 2,000 LPG powered vehicles in the UK and about four million world-wide.

Environmentalists and gas suppliers are hoping that the Queen will encourage the trend to develop.

The Director General of the Liquid Petroleum Gas Association, Tom Fidell, said: "The Royal Family did a similar launch a decade ago for lead-free petrol, and that took off afterwards. We hope that this will happen with LPG."
 

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