Mail belongs on rail!
Last month Royal Mail decommissioned its fleet of mail trains. Since we first heard rumours of this decision back in the summer, we summoned our passionate supporters to tell Royal Mail Chairman, Keith Williams, that mail belongs on rail. And last week, we hand-delivered him a postcard…
An incredible 3,650 of you signed our postcard, urging Royal Mail to work with the government and freight operator DB Cargo to find a way for mail to stay on rail. The relationship between Royal Mail and rail is a long one, a 200 year one, that shouldn’t be ended during the time at which we need rail freight the most.
While there have been problems, there are solutions to these problems that don’t involve transferring freight from rail to carbon polluting HGVs. One issue that Royal Mail flagged early on was the increasing cost of the UK’s Track Access Charges, which are significantly higher compared to our European counterparts. In August, Network rail took action to address this, waiving the fees for new rail freight operators in the first six months of operation. Already a new service has been launched thanks to this scheme. While not applicable in the case of Royal Mail, this shows that change is possible to encourage modal shift, and we remain hopeful that more will be done to encourage freight operations and realise rail freight’s many economic and environmental benefits.
But back to business. Once we had gathered thousands of supportive signatures, we printed our giant postcard and took it Royal Mail’s head office in Farringdon. Accompanied by one our London supporters Chris, we handed over our card and spoke to several Royal Mail employees who were very supportive of our campaign.
At Royal Mail HQ in London
Handing in over 3,000 signatures
Here’s what some of our other campaign supporters had to say:
“Next year we will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of railways. For all that time mail has been carried by rail, profitably for both parties. Surely a way must now be found to continue that symbiotic relationship?”
-Rail writer and broadcaster Christian Wolmar
“Rail freight will always be the safest, greenest and most reliable form of logistics transportation in the UK. Whilst we are deeply disappointed at Royal Mail’s decision to switch from rail to road based logistics, we are actively working with our stakeholders to find a solution to close the cost gap between rail and road to ensure that rail freight remains the backbone of reliable and sustainable logistics.”
-Andrea Rossi, CEO of DB Cargo UK
“Businesses across the country are looking to use more rail freight, and we need to find new opportunities for the parcels and mail sector to take advantage of green low carbon rail, helping to secure their supply chains and delivering rail freight growth.”
-Maggie Simpson OBE, Director General of Rail Freight Group
We were assured by staff on the front desk that Keith Williams would receive his postcard, and the next day had written confirmation to say it had made it into his hands! Wearing his other hat, Keith Williams is Chair of the Board of the Great British Railway Transition Team, which has been instrumental in developing a rail freight growth target for the government. We know from his work on the Williams-Shapps plan for rail, that he understands the vital importance of rail freight for cutting emissions and delivering economic growth. With this, very visual, reminder of people’s passion for rail mail, we hope that Royal Mail will carefully consider the future of its freight operation and find a way to continue a 200-year legacy.
Campaign photos: Devin Ainslie. Photo on postcard: D.J.H Photography, CC BY-SA 2.0.
