Royal Mail will stop using trains to carry mail, marking the end of nearly two centuries of postal service.
The Post Office will tell staff today that it plans to sell off its freight trains and switch to road delivery.
The shake-up comes after bosses at International Distribution Services, the owner of Royal Mail, agreed to sell the company to ‘Czech sphinx’ Daniel Křetínský for £3.5bn.
The agreement would see the 508-year-old postal service fall into foreign hands for the first time since it was founded in 1516 by Henry VIII.
Royal Mail’s decision to scrap freight trains ends its 194-year relationship with Britain’s railways.
The mail was first moved to the rails in 1830 – seven years before Queen Victoria came to the throne.
It inspired iconic works of art – and one of the most infamous robberies in British history.
A Royal Mail rail service traveling from Glasgow to London was the scene of the Great Train Robbery.
A gang of 15 robbers boarded a Royal Mail train in August 1963 and stole about £2.6 million – worth more than £46 million in today’s money.
WH Auden’s poem The Night Mail was inspired by mail trains and appears in the classic 1936 film of the same name.
While Traveling Post Offices – which saw staff sorting mail on trains – were abolished 20 years ago, letters and parcels still move across the country on the rail network every day.
Royal Mail’s announcement to staff comes after it revealed plans to halve the number of domestic flights in a bid to cut carbon emissions.
The Postal Service’s convoy of 5,000 red vans is the largest fleet of electric vehicles in the country.
And its heavy-duty truck fleet is partially fueled by hydro-refined vegetable oil, a renewable alternative to diesel.
As part of plans to scrap freight trains, the postal service will sell its 15 British Rail Class 325 trains.
However, a Royal Mail source said last night that only six of these 30-year-old trains were still running.
The decision is not expected to cost Royal Mail any work, but positions in the freight industry may be at risk.
And it signals a major turnaround from the Postal Service’s previous strategy to deliver more letters and parcels by rail.
The move comes just a year after Royal Mail opened its Midlands ‘super hub’ at Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal.
And it’s only two years since Royal Mail announced plans to triple the amount of mail moved by trains.
Scrapping freight trains is also a major headache for Sir Keir Starmer’s new Labor government.
It will land in the tray of Transport Secretary Lord Hendy, chairman of Network Rail.
One industry source said last night: “This will cause an uproar on the railway.
“But at least it will mean there will never be another big train robbery.
In its election manifesto, Labor pledged to “thoroughly review” the takeover of Royal Mail and give workers a “stronger voice”.