World Class Trains: The Northern Belle

The Northern Bell is the newest train to enter service with the world-famous Orient Express Company. This Orient Express of the North's inaugural journey took place on 31st May 2000. It was introduced as a sister train to the already successful British Pullman which makes up the British leg of the Venice Saint-Plant Orient Express. The Northern Bell revels in the bygone era of the Golden Age of travel, its name reflecting the Great Bell trains of the 1930s. Today's trip from Manchester will visit Beaver Castle near Grentham in the heart of the English Yorkshire countryside. The Northern Bell offers a variety of day excursions throughout England. A typical journey begins with a mid-morning departure after which brunch is served whilst travelling through some of the finest British scenery before arriving at an interesting city, castle or town. A tour of the destination is provided before rejoining the train with a fine dinner and wine being served during the homeward journey. The train also offers special trips such as fine dining departures where a four-hour journey is complemented by a gourmet lunch or dinner on board. Special occasions such as Christmas and New Year are marked with celebratory dining departures featuring five offer discerning travellers a revival of the Romantic Age of railway travel. The Northern Bell, the most recent and one of the very few world-class trains, represents the very apotheosis of rail-borne luxury, combining the splendours of Edwardian style and modern-day comforts. For although most of this train's counterparts offer travellers the luxury of individual cabins and overnight stays, the Northern Bell is no ordinary train. More a stylish and sedate adventure aboard an elegant haven through the magnificent British countryside, where the traveller takes in a passing landscape which can only be revealed through the windows of a train. Although it has been said of many of the other world-class trains, it is certainly true about the Northern Bell, for there really is no other experience quite like travelling on a luxury train. A time when the excitement of the journey and seeing the scenery unfold along the route actually created the adventure. A time when travelling meant much more than simply getting to the final destination, and such experiences in today's busy world are fast becoming a rarity. Travelling on a train such as the Northern Bell is not something you would consider a regular means of transport, but it is one of those experiences that even the most seasoned of travellers should try at least once. A chance to rediscover firsthand a trip back in time to a bygone era, where the passenger becomes a real traveller and is able to sample this much more gracious and decadent way of travel compared to modern-day means of transport. And the Orient Express Company has perfected the art of recreating this long past period in history. Actually the Orient Express since the Second World War hadn't been what it had been prior to the war. In fact they were just using ordinary carriages. I actually went on it in 1974 as a student and it was just very ordinary passenger carriages, somewhat uncomfortable with lack of facilities. But in 1976 the Vagon-Lee Company formally announced the closure of the Orient Express. Around the same time our chairman and founder Jim Sherwood had just started investing in leisure, we'd bought the Cipriani Hotel in Venice. And he went to an auction and a couple of Orient Express original 1920s Orient Express carriages were being auctioned and somehow or other at the end of it he found himself owning two of them. I think the King of Morocco bought the other two. And from that really came an idea that one could restart the Orient Express with the original, the best carriages from the 20s and 30s. It involved an enormous task of going around the railway yards of Europe, finding the original 1920s carriages. We had to do the same thing in Britain for the Pullman train and often we were pulling cars out of people's gardens, out of people's garages, often in a completely state of disrepair. So it was a major, major project and took us actually about four years to achieve. The Venice Saint-Plant Orient Express, in the words of its owners, has become the ultimate expression of refinement on wheels, where no arrangement has left a chance and no detail is overlooked. With plush velvet and sumptuous upholstery, recalling a vanished era when time was less important than experience, an amazing one. I mean the first thing was to get back to the real historical source, reference material, what were the carpets like, what was the upholstery on the chairs like, what was there on the walls. To a large extent, the wall finishes with the lalit glass and with the intricate marquetry, wooden marquetry, was still there, even if in a bad state, but a huge kind of exercise researching the kind of the textbooks and the railway books. And we used a Parisian designer, a gentleman called Gerard Galet, who together with some other French people basically put that together and we then had to remake carpets, remake upholstery material, coupled with the fact that of course we were now in the 1970s, late 1970s, 1980s and railway standards had changed somewhat in terms of safety, in terms of fire protection. So at the same time as we were doing the classic restoration, we were also having to restore the train to modern railway standards. So that presented a double challenge. The work was done in a combination, I mean we actually set up a couple of our own workshops, but a lot of the work surprisingly was contracted back to Vagon Lee, the people who had closed down the Orient Express, who still had railway workshops in Europe, who had the various skills, the woodworking skills and the ironmongery skills to basically repair and restore these carriages. So part of the deal was, when we bought a number of carriages from them, was that they actually got the job of the restoration. We now have our own maintenance yards, but if we're going to restore a carriage now, it's largely done outside of our premises. We've now built up a kind of a list of people with the particular skills necessary and it's amazing how in some cases, you know, family firms are still involved, people who were involved in building the carriages in the 1920s. Those same firms, through obviously through sons and grandsons, are still actually involved in this process. Unlike the British Pullman, the railway carriages forming the Northern Bell are modern carriages which have been re-engineered. The train is made up of six specifically designed Northern Bell cars, each carriage bearing the name and individually styled after one of the many significant stately homes or castles the train visits. The designs, created by James Park Associates, reflect the national heritage through a stately home character which has been retained throughout the train. The many craftsmen involved in the two-year process, which cost six million dollars, have used only the finest materials in furnishing the train with marquetry and fabrics. The result is truly a celebration of British heritage and age-old craftsmanship. The Northern Bell is our latest adventure in Britain. The British Pullman train, which is the 1920s carriages which form part of the Orient Express, has been running a very very successful side business of running day trips to Bath and to Stratford and to various places of interest. But most of those trips have originated out of London. Obviously London is where a large proportion of the UK population live or live around. It occurred to us that we were kind of missing something, but also people in the north of the country were missing something. So we decided about a year and a half ago to create a new train with the same concept, that it's a beautiful day out in fine surroundings with the finest service, taking in the north of England from the north of England, because we felt that Manchester and Leeds and York and to an extent Liverpool and Birmingham needed their own Pullman train, so that's what the Northern Bell is. Now there wasn't available historical carriages from the 1920s in that region, so what we decided to do, we actually researched in history and there was a train once called the Northern Bell which operated in the 1930s and used to run tours around the Yorkshire, Dales and the Pennine area. So we decided we'd take that concept, find carriages that were of slightly newer vintage, these are kind of 1960s vintage, but restore them in such a way that you had all of the benefits of the old Orient Express with hand-made marquetry and glass work and crystal and things, and we're very, very pleased with the outcome of that train. It's something special for the, it's called the Orient Express of the North, it's the fifth Orient Express train that we have, and it's especially for the people of the north of England, to give them a chance to have an Orient Express experience, although we only do day trips, we do weekend breaks to Edinburgh and we go up into Scotland to the Highlands where people stay with us for two or three days. But it gives them the experience of travelling on the Orient Express, and it's the whole, the name Orient Express, it just brings that mystique, everybody knows the Orient Express, it's something that everybody wants to do. So it's, although we're only a day train, it's a lovely special experience for somebody, if someone's celebrating something anniversary or going to a proposed marriage, we've had quite a few on here actually, and tomorrow there's going to be our first marriage on the train, so we're quite looking forward to that. So we visit London, leaving from Manchester or York, and also Bath, visit Bath, and we go up to Newcastle and across the Tyne. We do some very good, and I think in the middle of England is some of the nicest scenery, especially in Carlisle, coming down over the Ribblehead Viaduct, we do this about every two weeks, and it's quite stunning. It's a memorable day. Service is missing from many places nowadays, hotels or, it's very difficult to get nice service, so we're trying to bring that service back, old traditional service, onto something as special as this. We've just won an award actually, two nights ago, for the best newcomer, for restaurants, food and wine, and we're very proud of that, to re-establish standards of service in the area, which are missing. If you travel on any other train, you won't see anything like this I don't think. In true Orient Express style, there is a jazz band on the station platform at York, awaiting the arrival of the Northern Bell. This is another of the train's excursions, which is one of the dining trips, running from York to Newcastle, where it turns around and comes back down to York, in all about a five hour journey. But there is also another part of railway history to complement this particular excursion. The Northern Bell will be pulled on today's journey by possibly the most famous locomotive in the world, the Flying Scotsman. This splendid steam locomotive, which was built in 1923, achieved in 1928 the longest ever non-stop run, when it travelled almost 400 miles from Edinburgh to London, in 8 hours and 3 minutes. The Flying Scotsman also achieved further fame, when it became the first locomotive to officially record a speed of 100 miles per hour, which it achieved in 1934, running from Leeds to London. During its long and eventful history, locomotive number 4472, then owned by Alan Francis Pegler, completed a tour of the USA and also Australia. Unfortunately for the proud owner, the cost of running such a locomotive used up all his financial resources, and he had no option but to sell 4472 to the Honourable Sir William McAlpine, to pay off his creditors. It was finally purchased in 1996 by Dr Tony Marchington. Now fully restored, this splendid locomotive has been booked to haul 11 Northern Bell and 28 Venice-Saint-Plan Orient Express Pullman excursions during 2001. As the whistle blows and the train pulls out of the station for a journey through the heart of the Pennines, this combination of the magnificence of the Flying Scotsman and the luxury of the Northern Bell is the ultimate in the historic haul tours for 2001 is a day trip to Beamish, where you could experience first hand how life was lived in a 19th century mining village. There are also, amongst others, trips scheduled from York to Edinburgh, Manchester to York and Birmingham to Scarborough. As the owner stated in the brochure, whichever destination you choose, you are sure to arrive in style. The steam is kind of an interesting thing. Of course, you know, when people think about the romance of railways, steam is very much a part of that. I think what we're trying to do is to provide the passenger experience behind the locomotive rather than to provide the locomotive, and therefore for us steam is an important component. We use steam in the UK probably 30 times a year, big famous steam engines, and there's no question that some of the market is attracted by that and wants to travel on that particular trip. But generally speaking, as I say, our experience is about what happens in the carriages, and frankly when you're in a carriage you don't really know what's on the front of the train. A passenger coming on one of our trains would expect a completely unique experience, I mean unless he'd been on another of our trains. There is something completely different travelling on a train. It's a very romantic experience, as I say, one tends to travel with a loved one. It's interesting that the biggest drivers, you know, the biggest decision makers to go on our trains, our research shows, is actually the female rather than the male. I mean I'm not being genderist here, but obviously trains have an appeal to the female, but I think the man also likes the idea because trains are kind of quite manly. You would expect the best service I would suggest that you would receive anywhere in the world. I mean our staff, the concept is that there is somebody at your beck and call 24 hours a day, but not in a way that kind of annoys you, you know, there's nothing worse than over-service where people are kind of hovering on your shoulder and kind of go away. The idea is that it's very discreet, old-fashioned service, and I have to say, I mean I'm biased of course, but I think we achieved some of the best service I've ever come across in the world. As with every excursion on the Northern Bell, the passengers or guests are looked after by an ever-attentive crew. On this train the staff takes great care to ensure that every guest is made to feel at ease and totally relaxed. The pace is leisurely and unhurried. Although the train has to travel on this track at relatively high speed so as not to impede regular scheduled services, time passes slowly and sedately on the Northern Bell, its modern undercarriage gliding smoothly along the rails with scarcely a jolt or a rattle. The standard of cuisine is everything one would expect from a five-star establishment. However, when you consider the difference in size from a hotel's kitchen to the cramped galley of a train, preparing lunch to this standard for 70 or more guests at a time cannot be easy to achieve. The combination of fresh produce and gourmet cuisine make for a restaurant worthy of Michelin stars and it is easy to appreciate why this train is considered to be one of the most prestigious trains in the world. The owners, in describing this experience in the literature, state, feast your senses with the delightful indulgence of a luncheon or dinner excursion lasting approximately four hours. These excursions provide you with the perfect opportunity to relax and enjoy exceptional food in the unique and luxurious surroundings of your beautiful carriage. Enjoy a glass of chilled champagne and watch the rich tapestry of the British countryside glide past as the relaxing atmosphere becomes permeated with the aromas of fragrant mouth-watering menus and sumptuous meals. The Northern Bell is the perfect setting to entertain a loved one or make a special day a truly memorable one. We look at each new train route or each new train concept, I don't think there is any kind of formula, you know, each one is an individual and that's again part of the Orient Express concept, you know, if you travelled on the Eastern and Oriental Express it's a completely different experience from the train in Australia or the train in Europe. So there is no formula approach. What we have learned, a few things that we have learned, the open observation deck at the back of a train is a huge hit. That was put in really almost by chance on the back of the Asian train. A lot of people said, well you can't do this, it's going to be too hot and humid, but it has been really one of the huge successes of that train. So I think now any new train we introduce, an open observation car is something that we would see as a standard feature. But outside of that I think it really depends on where the rolling stock has come from, what sort of rolling stock it is and what sort of route and what sort of experience we are trying to give. One of the popular excursions on the Northern Bell is the trip to Beaver Castle. Beaver Castle, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, commands an outstanding view over the Vale of Beaver. The name means beautiful view and dates back to Norman times when Robert de Toddeny, William the Conqueror's standard bearer, built the first fortress on this splendid site. In the early 16th century the castle passed by marriage to the Manners family who later became the Earls and then Dukes of Rutland. The castle was rebuilt but during the Civil War it was seriously damaged. In 1655-58 a new classically proportioned house designed by John Webb, a pupil of Inigo Jones, was built on the old foundations. In 1801 the 5th Duke commissioned James Wyatt to remodel the castle in extravagant castellated style. The gardens were designed to show off the crenelated castle at its best. There are acres of grass, fine trees, walkways and many rose beds. The statue gardens which are built into the hillside below the castle are named after the carefully sited collection of 17th century sculptures by Caius Cibber, Royal Sculptor to Charles II. In 1813 the North and West Ranges were destroyed by fire and most of the pictures and furniture were lost. The Duke's chaplain, the Reverend Sir John Thoriton, who had worked closely with Wyatt on the earlier remodelling was entrusted with the rebuilding work. The entrance hall, staircase and passages were also created by Thoriton and the new series of staterooms he designed were decorated after his death in 1820 by Matthew and Benjamin Wyatt, the sons of James Wyatt. The most sumptuous rooms are on the north side and reflect the variety of styles fashionable in the Regency period. The King's rooms, named after George IV, face out over the entrance front. These rooms, decorated with Chinese wallpapers and furniture from the 1820s, lead via the main staircase to the Regents gallery. This long bow-windowed room was the main reception room in James Wyatt's South West Range and overlooks the beautiful wooded vistas. The walls are hung with faded pink 18th century Gobelin tapestries and there is some good French furniture, including pieces from the Bourou workshop. The top lit picture gallery, created by Benjamin Wyatt, houses the most important works of art. The paintings here include work by Poussin, Jan Steen, Tenier and Gainsborough. The round arch dining room has immense mahogany side boards and a marble side table by Matthew Wyatt. The walls are hung with portraits by Reynolds of the fourth Duke, who collected the finest paintings at Beaver. Following the trip to Beaver Castle, the Northern Bell makes its way back to Manchester. For the guests on board, this was only a brief taste of what a traveller can expect on an Orient Express train. We have the various trains now to provide a kind of a mix and a range of journeys. Of course, the classic journey is the Orient Express in Europe, which goes from Boulogne to Paris, or from London to Boulogne to Paris and then on to Venice. And that train, from time to time, does what we call some trophy trips. Once a year, it does the classic Orient Express journey to Istanbul. This is a six-night undertaking. It's incredibly popular, but for various technical reasons, you know, our carriages are fairly old ladies and they don't like being raced around huge distances too often, so we do this just once a year and it tends to be oversubscribed. It's an interesting trip because you stop at the very castle that the original Orient Express stopped at in Romania in 1883. We have time to visit Bulgaria and you really get a good cruise of the Balkans, but all at the same time cocooned in this beautiful train. And I think it was really that idea that inspired the other trains. We wanted to provide a travel experience where you've got that cocooning effect. You'd have some opportunity to get off the train and look at things as you were passing them. So the Malay Peninsula lent itself to this. I mean, Thailand is this wonderfully exotic country of temples, of strange limestone outcrops, of people, you know, living a very basic rural life, but not an uncomfortable rural life. And it's fascinating as you go along the tracks and the tracks are full of people and chickens and things, and of course you see all of this. And we have an observation car and you can actually go out in the observation car and see everybody come back onto the track after our train has passed. You also get a little bit of wildlife going through Malaysia. You know, Malaysia's full of primary jungles. So you get a, you know, a really a very good view of the terrain there. With Australia, it was a step beyond that because the train we decided we wanted to run up the eastern seaboard from Sydney to Cairns because frankly this had the most scenic variety. You have mountains, you have rivers, you have the barrier reef. But then we said we don't want to just pass the barrier reef. People want to go and see it. So as part of the train journey, we actually helicopter people over to our private pontoon in the middle of the barrier reef. And they have a wonderful experience just seeing, you know, for a short period of time, the marine life there and understanding that. And then of course the train goes up into the other great marvel of that region, which is the rainforest. So I think the purpose of the big trains is really to provide a kind of countryside experience, but stopping at the best things that we see. Separately, I think we have our two trains in the UK. We have the British Pullman, which has now been running for 20 years and now the new Northern Bell, both of which are really just designed to give you a nice day out going somewhere interesting, but with fine service, fine food. And they're really just a great day out. A lot of people use it for celebrations. All of our trains are very much for friends and loved ones. They're not things, we don't get many single passengers. People tend to travel with their loved ones or with their family or with their friends. And so one gets a, you know, a party atmosphere develops quite quickly. The trip to Beaver Castle also incorporates one element of surprise into the adventure. Murder on the Orient Express. The trip today is a murder mystery trip. We're going to Beaver Castle. Actors join us in Manchester and they create a little play through each carriage. People have come specially for this today. And they're given clues throughout the journey, which they have to try to solve. And at the end of the day, there's a prize given to the one who cracks the, in each carriage, who cracks the plot. So we started off in Manchester, the actors come through. And we arrive in Grantham, where people are transferred then to Beaver Castle. And this is where the actual murder takes place, in the castle itself. And people are given more clues. Then they come back to the train. We have dinner ready for them when they await. And then the actors go through again. More clues and more clues. And before we arrive back in Manchester, they pick the winners, one from each car. And they're presented with a lovely murder on the Orient Express. They get the Christie book, a beautifully leather bound copy and a bottle of champagne. So it's great fun. People enjoy it. They've not only got lovely scenery to look at, but they've also got other things to keep their minds active. Read all about it. Horrible murder on the Orient Express. No more time for mucking about. Who's won the mystery? Take that off the answer. Have you got the prizes, sister of mine? We've got two winners in this coach. The concept behind the Orient Express trains, I think, is really to deal with a growing trend in what I see in the leisure markets. Increasingly, people's leisure time is precious. People are time poor nowadays. And I think we've all travelled a bit more than people had maybe 40 or 50 years ago. A lot of us have been around the world as students or whatever. So we're looking to somehow recapture part of that real thrill of travelling. And of course, it's very hard when you have a very short amount of time. So I think what we're really trying to do in Orient Express is to kind of recreate the pleasures of travelling. Trains lend themselves so beautifully to that travel experience. You're looking at a country as it passes. It's not some sudden shock as you go from one airport to another. You're kind of watching the landscape evolve. You're seeing real life as it actually takes place on the ground. And yet at the same time, you're doing simple things like eating and talking and having a drink and looking out from an observation car. So there's something kind of innately pleasurable and almost spiritually nice about travelling in a train. I don't think anybody else is really providing this experience. Cruise ships, of course, are doing a slightly similar thing. But a lot of what you're seeing in a cruise ship is the wide open ocean. There's not an awful lot to view. A train is like a cruise ship, but you're actually seeing the terrain while you're travelling. One of the most popular excursions on the Northern Belle is a trip to the ancient city of York. For the sheer drama of its setting and its checkered history, there is little in York to rival Clifford's Tower. The present stone building dates from the 13th century when it was built by Henry III. York owes its existence to its two rivers. The defensive island, formed by their confluence, made an ideal defensive site and the river Ouse was an important trading highway since pre-Roman times. Now the rivers are no longer needed for defence and trade has dwindled away to almost nothing, but much pleasure can be had by sightseeing, walking alongside them or travelling the Ouse by boat. York also has a wealth of ancient churches, fitting tributes to the devotion and religious piety of its citizens of former times. York Minster is definitely the jewel in the historical crown of York. The largest medieval building in England and the biggest Gothic cathedral north of the Alps, the Minster was built on what was the headquarters of a Roman fortress. This period of the Minster's history is recorded in the Minster's Foundations Museum, which contains a number of Roman relics. The first York Minster was a small wooden church built under the care of Paulinus, the chaplain of Princess Ethelberger, who came north to marry King Edwin of Northumbria. The statue of Constantine the Great was erected near to the site where he was proclaimed emperor in 306. Constantine was converted to the Christian faith and he was responsible for laying the religious foundations of Western Christianity. There are many and various ways to explore York, and with so much to see, it may well be a good idea to take a guided tour. Tourists from all over the world come to visit Shammels, one of the best preserved medieval streets in Europe. The street was home to the butchers of York, and takes its curious name from the shammels, the shelves, which butchers used to display their meat. You can still see these heavy shelves in front of some of the shop windows and the hooks where the meat was hung. In high season, this street is full of people who come just to stop and look at the fine examples of medieval architecture. Some of the earliest buildings date back to 1350, and the timber-framed buildings lean towards each other across the street. Today, there are no longer any butchers. You're more likely to find a variety of bookshops, restaurants, clothing and sweet shops, and other local tradesmen. There are at present only five genuine Orient Express trains operating throughout the world, although a number of the company's rivals have tried using the name. The question of other Orient Expresses, I don't actually think they operate as competition to us. Yes, you're right, I mean, really, they shouldn't be calling their trains Orient Express, but of course it is that kind of magical label that, you know, some people think may help their own business ventures. Generally speaking, I mean, we try and discourage them from doing it and, you know, there have even been cases of, you know, resorting to the law. The reality is that a lot of these other Orient Expresses, with the grace of respect, don't tend to last very long, so by the time we actually get to court, they've invariably gone out of business. So I don't really believe they're competition. I think most people in the world, most of our market is fairly discerning. It knows what is an Orient Express company service and what is some newer, perhaps less authentic service. My view is that there really is only one Orient Express in the world, and that is the Orient Express that runs from Paris to Venice, which is our normal route. So we've been at pains not to call any of our other trains the Orient Express. You know, the train in Asia is not called Orient Express, it's called the Eastern and Oriental Express. The train in Australia is the Great South Pacific Express, because in our view, there is just one Orient Express. We probably receive 20 or 30 proposals a year for starting a train here, there and everywhere. I have to say that, sadly, a lot of the proposals are rather hopeful rather than realistic, and ultimately we have to operate as a commercial concern, because only by making a return can we then invest in new trains. But I would say that at any one time there are four or five serious proposals on my desk that we're evaluating and researching for other train operations. Obviously the world is a big place and there are still some opportunities for some great train journeys. Our company went into Peru just over a year ago, basically taking a concession on the regular railway lines there. So we're running regular trains up to Machu Picchu, which of course is the icon of tourism in Peru, but also running trains to Lake Titicaca and to Arequipa and then down to the coast. Yes, very much we're looking now at could a deluxe tourist train operate in that environment. At the moment the trains are basic day travel trains. I mean, we get a lot of tourists, but we're talking about a $50 train ride as against an Orient Express trip, which tends to be a sort of $1,000 train ride. But I think, yes, there are definitely opportunities in Peru and there are some interesting opportunities in other parts of the world. But, you know, these are big, big undertakings. It takes us two or three years to identify the rolling stock, to work out a concept, to research the destination. So I don't think we'll see too many trains kind of coming next year. I think we probably will be a couple of years before the next train comes into play. What does Orient Express stand for? I mean, it's interesting as I travel around the world, it's incredibly well known and I find that it opens doors, whether it's from a government minister or a travel agent or an ordinary member of the travelling public. There's a very, very high awareness, helped I think to some extent by Agatha Christie, who we'd like to have in our marketing department. No, I think what Orient Express stands for is it stands for quality, it stands for romance, it stands for adventure, it stands for history and nostalgia. And I think it's a kind of combination of all of those concepts that really provides the total experience. We are very conscious that Orient Express is a special name and over the years people have asked us whether they could open up Orient Express franchised shops or Orient Express restaurants and the answer always has to be no. This is something that is unique, is special and I think since 1978 when we relaunched the service, we've been conscious of that. We're keeping the name for history and I'd like to think that the Orient Express brand is still as strong in a hundred years' time. A journey aboard the Northern Bell is truly a wonderful experience and this train certainly deserves its place amongst the world's finest trains. The carriages are of the highest standard and the very last word in comfort and style. The service and courtesy of the staff is impeccable and the standard of dining equals some of the finest restaurants in the world. This train, the Orient Express of the North, ranks amongst one of the most hospitable and luxurious means of travel in this modern age of transport. Hardly surprising when you consider its fine pedigree.