'Mail Rail' trains tested to be revived as museum experience

Trains have run on the London Post Office Railway for the first time since the ‘Mail Rail’ service was abandoned over 10 years ago. 

The ‘Mail Rail’ underground track, which has not been used since 2003, saw its first test drive in a decade carried out along a section of the track ahead of its public re-opening next summer. 

Two new-battery powered trains based on original designs but modified to carry up to 32 passengers had been lowered onto the railway by a crane through a shaft to arrange the test drive. 

The track will be used as an educational experience for visitors to The Postal Museum, who will be able to board the trains at a depot at Mount Pleasant and take a one kilometre journey lasting 15 minutes. 

The London Post Office Railway network was established in 1927 and stretched for 6.5 miles from Whitechapel in the east of London to Paddington in the west, 70 feet below street level. Before the network was shut down, between four and 12 million items of post were carried through its tunnels each year.

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