Mail train

Last updated July 13, 2019

Many countries have had dedicated railway services for the delivery of postal mail.

The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal systems have generally been established as government monopolies, with a fee on the article prepaid. Proof of payment is often in the form of adhesive postage stamps, but postage meters are also used for bulk mailing. Modern private postal systems are typically distinguished from national postal agencies by the names "courier" or "delivery service".

Examples include:

In Australia, the Travelling post office, Queensland

A Travelling Post Office (TPO) is a postal receiving, sorting and delivery service situated on a train, usually in a specially designated carriage that is part of a passenger train. In Queensland, Australia, the service was provided from 1877 to 1932.

In Austria, the Bahnpost (Austria) [ de ] (1850–2004)
In France, the SNCF TGV La Poste (1984–2015) were rail cars built specifically for La Poste, which had run rail services since 1846
In Germany, as well as the Bahnpost (Germany) [ de ] (from 1840s), several cities have their own mail trains, including:
- Poststraßenbahn Berlin [ de ] in Berlin
- Post-U-Bahn München [ de ] in Munich
In Switzerland, the Bahnpost (Switzerland) [ de ] has run since 1847
In the United Kingdom, the Travelling Post Office (1830–2004) was a service where post was sorted en route
- The London Post Office Railway (1927–2003) operated in dedicated tunnels under London
In the United States, the Railway Mail Service (1862–1978) of the United States Postal Service carried the vast majority of mail from the 1890s until the 1960s
- The Railway Mail Service used railway post offices within passenger services to sort post en route
- The use of the Chicago Tunnel Company for mail freight inspired the London Post Office Railway
In the United States, a railway post office, commonly abbreviated as RPO, was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service as a means to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. The RPO was staffed by highly trained Railway Mail Service postal clerks, and was off-limits to the passengers on the train. In the UK and Ireland, the equivalent term was Travelling Post Office (TPO).
The Chicago Tunnel Company built a 2 ft narrow-gauge railway freight tunnel network under the downtown of the city of Chicago. This was regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission as an interurban even though it operated entirely under central Chicago, did not carry passengers, and was entirely underground. It inspired the construction of the London Post Office Railway.

The TGV La Poste were dedicated trainsets for high-speed freight and mail transportation by French railway company SNCF on behalf of the French postal carrier La Poste. The top speed of this TGV Sud-Est derivate was 270 km/h (168 mph), making them the fastest freight trains in the world. They were withdrawn in 2015.

A Travelling Post Office (TPO) was a type of mail train used in Great Britain and Ireland where the post was sorted en route. The last Travelling Post Office services were ended on 9 January 2004, with the carriages used now sold for scrap or to preservation societies.

The Post Office Railway, known as Mail Rail since 1987, is a 2 ft narrow gauge, driverless underground railway in London that was built by the Post Office with assistance from the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, to move mail between sorting offices. Inspired by the Chicago Tunnel Company, it operated from 1927 until 2003. A museum within the former railway was opened in September 2017.

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Related Research Articles

A post office is a public department that provides a customer service to the public and handles their mail needs. Post offices offer mail-related services such as acceptance of letters and parcels; provision of post office boxes; and sale of postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. In addition, many post offices offer additional services: providing and accepting government forms, processing government services and fees, and banking services. The chief administrator of a post office is called a postmaster.

The United States Postal Service's Railway Mail Service was a significant mail transportation service in the US from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. The RMS, or its successor the Postal Transportation Service (PTS), carried the vast majority of letters and packages mailed in the United States from the 1890s until the 1960s.

The United States Post Office Department was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, in the form of a Cabinet department officially from 1872 to 1971. It was headed by the Postmaster General.

Post or POST commonly refers to:

The S-train is a type of hybrid urban-suburban rail serving a metropolitan region. Some of the larger S-train systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble commuter or even regional rail. They are especially common in Germany and Austria, where they are known as S-Bahn, which in the 1930s was an abbreviation of either Schnellbahn, Stadtbahn or Stadtschnellbahn, depending on the city, but they must not be confused with U-Stadtbahnen. Similar S-train systems exist also in Switzerland known as S-Bahn as well. In Denmark, they are known as S-tog[ˈɛsˌtˢɔːˀʊ̯], in the Czech Republic as Esko or S-lines, and northern Italy as Servizio ferroviario followed by either the word "metropolitano" or "suburbano".

Poste restante or general delivery is a service where the post office holds the mail until the recipient calls for it. It is a common destination for mail for people who are visiting a particular location and have no need, or no way, of having mail delivered directly to their place of residence at that time.

From the 1880s until well into the 1950s, virtually all long-distance transportation of United States Mail was performed by the railroads. Specially equipped Railway Post Office (RPO) cars were a part of most passenger trains, the cars staffed by highly trained railway postal clerks who sorted mail as the train sped along its route. The growth of this mail distribution network paralleled the expansion of the railroads, allowing mail to be exchanged between routes at junction points where two railroads crossed or shared passenger terminals.

A postbus is a public bus service that is operated as part of local mail delivery as a means of providing public transport in rural areas with lower levels of patronage, where a normal bus service would be uneconomic or inefficient. Postbus services are generally run by a public postal delivery company and combine the functions of public transport and mail delivery and collection. A standard passenger fare is payable to the driver or postie.

Swiss Post is the national postal service of Switzerland. A public company owned by the Swiss Confederation, it is the country's second largest employer. The group is based in Bern.

In Great Britain, a mail coach was a stagecoach built to a Post Office-approved design operated by an independent contractor to carry long-distance mail for the Post Office. Mail was held in a box at the rear where the only Royal Mail employee, an armed guard, stood. Passengers were taken at a premium fare. There was seating for four passengers inside and more outside with the driver. The guard's seat could not be shared. This distribution system began in 1784. In Ireland the same service began in 1789.

La Poste (France) SA founded in 2010 to replace La Poste (France)

La Poste is a postal service company in France, operating in Metropolitan France as well as in the five French overseas departments and the overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Because of bilateral agreements, La Poste also has the responsibility of mail services in Monaco through La Poste Monaco and in Andorra alongside the Spanish company Correos.

High-speed rail in Europe is emerging as an increasingly popular and efficient means of transport. The first high-speed rail lines in Europe, built in the 1980s and 1990s, improved travel times on intra-national corridors. Since then, several countries have built extensive high-speed networks, and there are now several cross-border high-speed rail links. Railway operators frequently run international services, and tracks are continuously being built and upgraded to international standards on the emerging European high-speed rail network.

Mobile post offices deliver mail and other postal services through specially equipped vehicles, such as trucks and trains.

A sorting office or processing and distribution center is any location where postal operators bring mail after collection for sorting into batches for delivery to the addressee, which may be a direct delivery or sent onwards to another regional or local sorting office, or to another postal administration.

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