Rail 1, Air 0

In a few months the Royal Mail will be transferring carraige of mail from rail to air and road. This posting (from another lists) was posted to the Diesel & Electric Modellers group, indicates that all might not be well.

Air: EDINBURGH-EMA-EDINBURGH De-icing at Edinburgh. Following de-icing at Edinburgh the aircraft departed 30 mins late and arrived at EMA 20 late. Departed EMA 23 late and arrived at Edinburgh 8 late. Due to the late arrival 30,000 Inverness itwms failed to connect to the plane amd were forwarded by road.

BRISTOL-SPEKE-NEWCASTLE
Aircraft went tech (engine) at Speke.
The aircraft was repaired but subsequently went tech again with a different fault and eventually departed 155 late. Arriving Newcastle 152 late, all mails were offloaded and sent to Newcastle to be forwarded later that day.

SPEKE-BELFAST
Aircraft went tech (steering) in Belfast prior to positioning to
Speke.
The aircraft could not be repaired, the operator provided a back up plane which positioned into Speke from Glasgow (delayed refuelling & pushing back in Glasgow). Departed Speke 155 late and arrived Belfast
147 late.

Rail:
NO PROBLEMS

Road:
47 breakdowns.

There are continuing rumours that the Royal Mail is in negotiation with some train company other than EWS, using some rolling stock already owned by the Royal Mail. If the above figures are typical, let's hope they concentrate minds. Otherwise we'll have to get used to a lot more late mail.