royal mail tourist train

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Most visitors to London will travel on the tube, whether the larger sub-surface lines or the more cramped deep-level lines that give the system its tube nickname. But did you know there is an even smaller underground railway in London? One that was used purely for moving the mail. Mail Rail, as it was known, is no longer used by the Royal Mail but is now open as a tourist attraction as part of the Postal Museum.

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The idea to build a railway under London to move the mail originated in 1911 and was designed as a 6.5 mile route linking key sorting offices. Originally called the Post Office Railway, the line opened in 1927 to move mail between London sorting offices efficiently by avoiding delays due to London road traffic.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE POSTAL MUSEUM AND MAIL RAIL

The postal museum and Mail Rail are not co-located, so it’s important to know where you are heading in order to take your ride on the train, especially as these tickets are timed.

The ride on the mail rail is located just a short walk down Phoenix Place from the Postal Museum itself. You do not catch the train from within the actual postal museum. The building has a large MAIL RAIL sign outside and is easy to find.

Once your tickets have been validated you will descend some stairs to the train platforms and wait for your train time. You will then be seated in the very compact railway carriages which have been converted to carry people from their original use as just for mail. The trains are also now driven by a human; when carrying the mail they were driverless.  

As the tiny train departs the station and heads into the tunnel, you’ll be given a narrated history and guide to the railway. You’ll see the tiny tunnels, branches off those tunnels into other routes the railway used to serve and even a train graveyard where trains no longer needed have been left. The best parts of the tour are at the stations where you’ll stop at a couple during the tour and projectors beam videos onto the platform walls telling the story of how the railway worked. That parts of the video cleverly align with platform features like doors so that people appear to walk out of them is a very nice touch.

At the end of the ride, you’ll exit the train through a small exhibition which shows some of the equipment used on the railway. There is also a mail sorting interactive challenge here where you have to sort the mail in the correct slots while the train is hurtling along. The whole section of this part of the exhibit moves back and forth as you try to sort the mail to simulate the challenges the workers would have faced.

THE POSTAL MUSEUM

The Postal Museum, with its entrance hedge embedded with postboxes (as shown in the header image), shows the history of the Royal Mail and the postal service within the UK. From the origins of the service and famous introduction of stamps, such as the Penny Black, to the equipment that has allowed letters and parcels to be distributed country-wide for over 500 years.

The museum houses examples of royal mail vehicles, including a very impressively restored mail coach, as well as many examples of postboxes and telephone boxes.

Why telephone boxes? Well for many years the GPO (General Post Office) delivered the post and provided telephone services within most of the UK. The museum also has the honour of being the home of the only Victoria Cross awarded to a member of the Post Office Rifles.

PLAN YOUR VISIT TO THE POSTAL MUSEUM AND MAIL RAIL

How to get there.

The Postal Museum and Mail Rail can be found at 15-20 Phoenix Pl, London WC1X 0DL .

The nearest tube stations are Chancery Lane (Circle Line), Russell Square (Piccadilly Line),  King’s Cross St Pancras (Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria Lines), and Farringdon (Thameslink, Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines). All stations are about a 10-15 minute walk to the Postal Museum.

Parking is available less than ten minutes walk away at NCP Car Park London Saffron Hill .

OPENING HOURS

Opening hours are 1000-1700 every day except for the 24th to 25th December.

The Mail Rail ride runs from 1015 to 1635 and takes approximately 15 minutes. We recommend booking in advance as Mail Rail tickets are timed for a specific hour of the day. They can be purchased on the day, but you could have to wait to ride depending on demand.

As the entire exhibition is indoors, aside from the brief walk between the two parts of the attraction, any time of year is a good time to visit and it could be the perfect place to visit on a rainy or cold day.

HOW TO BUY TICKETS & SAVE MONEY ON ADMISSION

Basic admission prices are £17 for adults, £10 for children 3-15 years, £12 for people aged 16-24. Prices are £2 less for disabled people and you can save £1 per ticket by booking in advance , which also guarantees your Mail Ride time.

The Postal Museum is included in the London Pass which can offer savings depending on what else you are doing whilst you are in London.

ACCESSIBILITY

The Postal Museum and Mail Rail exhibits offer step-free access except for the Mail Rail ride itself due to emergency evacuation requirements. A film of what riders will experience is available on the ground floor of Mail Rail.

For full accessibility details please visit the Postal Museum Accessibility page.

IS THE POSTAL MUSEUM AND MAIL RAIL WORTH THE VISIT?

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Postal Museum and the ride on Mail Rail was interesting. Both to ride on this previously goods only tiny railway but also for the history of how the railway operated and helped keep the post moving across London.

See what others think of this attraction on Trip Advisor .

ADD TO YOUR ITINERARY

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life” said Samuel Johnson, so it’s no surprise that there are a plethora of things to do in the UK’s capital city. Here are a few choice selections to whet your appetite.

IN THE AREA

• Charles Dickens Museum  showcases manuscripts and personal items from the famous author displayed in his former home.
• If you want to buy something silver the London Silver Vaults  are the world’s largest retail area for silver in the world with over 30 specialist shops.
• The Foundling Museum   tells the story of the Foundling Hospital. The UK’s first charity home for abandoned children.
• The  British Museum is one of the world’s premier collections of global antiquities including such exhibits as the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles.
• Visit the famous Platform 9 and 3/4 from Harry Potter at King’s Cross Station.

RELATED ATTRACTIONS IN LONDON

• Philatelists will love the National Philatelic Collection at British Library which contains more than 8 million items stamp related items.
• Visit the London Transport Museum to find out more about the history of transport over and underground in London.
• Once the tallest tower in London, the Post Office Tower, or BT Tower to give its proper name, is a unique looking landmark on the London skyline. Unfortunately, it is no longer open to the public.

RESOURCES | PLAN YOUR TRIP TO LONDON

To book flights, rental cars, accommodations, and activities for your trip, please check out our recommended travel providers, favourite apps and websites. 

These are a few tours we would recommend for your trip to London.

Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission but this does not affect the price to you. Please read our   full disclosure policy here . 

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Posted on 28th December 2022 Categories Arts + Culture

By: Author Lauren Kendrick

The Mail Rail: Discovering the Postal Museum’s Secret Mail Tunnel

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Scuttling beneath the streets of London is Clerkenwell’s historic Mail Rail. Once the postal service hub, it is now a unique, interactive ride 21 metres below ground. Here you can climb aboard the miniature train, explore the original tunnels and learn how the postal railway in London began. 

Words by Karen Olney

Now, what if we were to tell you that you can ride a labyrinth of tunnels in a train so small, you’d struggle to swing a cat? And along the way, you will learn everything there is to know about the history of the postal service?

Well, it’s actually a thing. And it’s brilliant.

Way before we could simply ping an email or ‘like’ a Facebook post, the Royal Mail was the social network for civilians. Built in 1927, this underground post office railway revolutionised how post was transported between sorting offices.

Lasting approximately 15 minutes, the Mail Rail at the Postal Museum is a fun and informative way of bringing the history of the postal service to life.

And after your ride, you can cross the road to see more exhibitions at the Postal Museum. 

Why Visit The Mail Rail?

To be fair, learning about the Post Office’s history might not be quite at the top of your bucket list.

But what we love about this experience is just how novel it is.

I mean, when do you ever get to whizz around London in a train so small you can’t scratch your armpits? (Ok, noted this is probably a daily occurrence for some commuters).

Squeeze yourself onboard and begin your journey at the maintenance depot. There isn’t much room, but lockers are nearby for your belongings. Then as the train departs, the glass roof offers a panoramic vision of the tunnels.

Throughout the ride, the train stops to show large projections on abandoned platforms, narrating the Mail Rail’s history through the ages.

Word of warning, though – this is not for those nervous in small spaces. 

After the train ride, you can discover the Mail Rail museum exhibition. There are many hands-on activities, making it great for kids too. Dress up as a train driver in the replica postmasters’ wardrobe or climb onboard an original train.

Bringing little ones? For an added fee, you can take the experience further in the Sorted! play area . This is a fantastic, imaginative play area featuring a mini town where kids can post letters, sort mail and let off some steam. It’s pretty adorable stuff.

Better yet, Mail Rail tickets are not too pricey, and you can easily spend half a day here. If you book online beforehand, adult tickets are £16 and child tickets are £9.

The History of The Mail Rail

Digging into the history of the Mail Rail is far more interesting than missing letters and delayed parcels. We learnt quite a few interesting facts along the way.

Postal Coaches were Targeted by Robbers and…. a Lion

Nowadays, postal workers may encounter the odd grumpy dog, but back then, moving mail on the roads wasn’t for the faint-hearted. Traditionally, drivers delivered mail on coaches and were prime targets for highwaymen.

And it wasn’t just robbers drivers had to avoid. On the Exeter-London route in 1816, a fearsome lion attacked a coach on Salisbury Plain. You can’t fault the postal workers for commitment, though – the mail arrived just 45 minutes late that evening.

The Mail Rail enabled postal workers safety from robbers and wild animals.

In the 1900s London Traffic Was Even Worse

Today, London’s traffic is a nightmare. But back then, it was even slower. In fact, one report, which prompted the construction of the Mail Rail, stated that the speed on London roads would never go above 10kmph.

In the early 1900s, London’s Central Mail Centre was one of the busiest mail centres in the world and needed a helping hand.

Cue the Mail Rail. 

Approved by Parliament, the construction of the post office underground railway began in 1915. It consisted of a network of narrow tunnels criss-crossing over 6 miles and linking six sorting offices with the two mainline stations, Paddington and Liverpool St.

The Mail Rail Was a World First

The London Mail Rail was hailed as the world’s first driverless, electric railway, carrying mail quickly across London.

At its peak, it transported four million letters a day for 22 hours a day. Operators controlled the trains by using a switchboard.

Construction Was Delayed by War

Construction wasn’t easy. The project began in 1915 and was completed on December 3 rd , 1927. 

There were several hiccups along the way. The Treasury paused construction during The First World War, and once it was over, the cost of materials rocketed, meaning work on the Mail Rail tunnels didn’t resume until 1923.

The tunnels still came in handy during wartime, though. They were used to protect art usually housed in the National Portrait Gallery, British Museum and the Tate Gallery.

Doors Officially Closed in 2003

As offices began to relocate to the suburbs and technology developed, the Postal Museum train became economically unviable and was mothballed in 2003.

However, the tunnels remained under light maintenance and opened to the public as a museum in 2017.

Our verdict? London’s post office railway is a stop worth boarding at.

The Mail Rail: Practical Information

Address: The Postal Museum, 15-20 Phoenix Place, London, WC1X 0DA

Opening Times: Wednesday- Sunday 10.00- 17.00

Mail Rail Tickets: Adult (25+) £17, Young Person (16- 24) £12, Child (3- 15) £10. Online discount available.

The Mail Rail: Map 

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Ride mail rail & explore london’s postal museum.

Last updated: 23 June 2023

The Postal Museum and the Mail Rail are the two most recent additions to the ever-expanding list of London historical and cultural attractions. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak and get up close and personal with an important piece of London’s past that few were aware of… until now.

The ambitious Postal Museum project became a reality after it was unveiled earlier this week. The Postal Museum opens for visitors on Friday 28 July 2017, with the Mail Rail opening on 4 September 2017.

The Postal Museum

Branding itself the “first social network”, the museum aims to bring to life five centuries of the postal service and the impact it had on the entire country.

Converted from an old printing factory, the new museum site incorporates the Mail Rail and The Postal Museum located just near the Royal Mail Mount Pleasant mail sorting centre in Clerkenwell.

Guests pass through the newly created welcome space before entering the surprisingly vast museum which winds visitors through five brightly coloured zones, chronologically stepping through the history of mail.

Between displays, information boards, multimedia exhibits and the knowledgeable staff visitors can get answers to even the toughest questions. Have you ever wondered how mail was delivered during some of the world’s most significant historical events?

How was mail was delivered to soldiers in trenches during WW1?

Did the mail service stop when the bombs rained down on london during the blitz.

There’s even a section on the Titanic where visitors can read about telegrams which were sent in the moments after the fatal iceberg collision. I felt like I was reading a series of tweets because the telegrams were a series of short messages providing updates. Updates that included the collision, the presumption that everything was OK, to the realisation that the Unsinkable Titanic was going to sink… a sobering read during your visit (the original telegrams exist in the museum’s archives but aren’t currently on display).

The hands-on museum provides interactive exhibits for people of all ages.  The use of models and multimedia to tell stories like the lioness that escaped the circus and attacked a Mail Coach, or the history of the Post Horn.  Adults and kids alike can dress up as a postman in the uniforms that have changed over the centuries.  

There’s also a section for the code curious, where they can decipher Morse code at a 1930s writing bureau or write a message and send it through the system of pneumatic tubes that run across the museum’s ceiling.

Ever collect stamps as a kid? Perhaps you were after the rarest of them all.  At The Postal Museum, there’s a priceless intact full sheet of the world’s first stamp, the Penny Black. There are only a few full sheets still in the world today, and they’re all held by The Postal Museum.  

Did you know?

England is the only country in the world that doesn’t need to list its country on the stamp? The monarch’s head is all that’s needed.  So it’s not surprising that the plaster cast of the Queen’s head has been reproduced over 220 billion times! The original is on display.

At a bare minimum, visitors should allow two to three hours for the museum alone.  The combination of activities and fact can keep even the most restless adult entertained for hours.

The Mail Rail

The hotly anticipated Mail Rail, the centrepiece of the Postal Museum experience has finally arrived (opening on 4 September 2017). 

There are a series of subterranean tunnels that you’ve likely never heard of, which criss-cross their way under the city for 22 miles from Paddington to Whitechapel since 1927. In its heydey, the network hub functioned 22 hours a day and employed 220 people of various trades (plumbers, engineers, carpenters and electricians) on hand ready to repair anything on the network before being closed.  

Closing in 2003 after being deemed too expensive to maintain compared to road transport. The Royal Mail railway left behind tracks and tunnels that would lie dormant for decades, and with just 3 remaining staff to maintain the integrity of the tunnels and tracks.  

In contrast to the original purpose of the Mail Rail, from 4 September, the railway will carry visitors along a dedicated track through the tunnels. Audio commentary throughout the glass roofed modern equivalent of a Mail Train, which is not dissimilar to a miniature Tube and will stop at two platforms with audio visual entertainment to provide context and bring the stations back to their 1930s prime.

The tunnels are much narrower than their Tube cousins, with the width of just 7ft in the narrowest part of the tunnel.  That’s an average sized male stretching his arms fingertip to fingertip.  

For riders, two brand new battery-powered “trains” will carry up to 32 passengers on a journey of 1km, 70 feet underground for about 20 minutes.  Given the space constraints, realistically that number will be lowered to about 18 depending on size of riders.   Able to carry up to 300 people per day, tickets will be timed to manage the demand.  

After the Mail Rail ride, visitors will be able to visit the adjacent refurbished former engineers workshop. Display boards tell the history of the vast cavern with spotlighted stories on workers who gave much of their lives to the system.  Original cranes, pulleys and platforms remain, alongside a Victorian pneumatic rail car, the predecessor to Mail Rail.

For those with a competitive spirit, there’s even more hands-on experiences including racing pneumatic cars using wheels. Or for the authentic experience dress up in a dust jacket and cap and sort mail in a replica of a real-life Travelling Post Office complete with shaking floor.

Additional tactile exhibits include shunting mail trains around a model size track and looking into the past on a Timescope which shows what the space looked like before the renovations.

Allow at least an hour for this section to get the most out of the experience.  

This is kids play areas done well.  Two dedicated areas for kids aged 0-8, here you can find everything a budding young postal worker could want in our hands-on mail-themed play space.

Interactive opportunities for kids to play postman in a mini neighbourhood, or weigh and sort mail in the office.  Use pulleys, chutes, slides and trolleys to sort parcels.  

Access to Sorted! is either via a dedicated ticket (£5) or a combined General Admission + Sorted! Ticket (£11.75). Entertainment f or parents is in the form of comfortable seating, a coffee cart, designated toilets and changing facilities, lockers and parking for buggies.  

The Essentials |  The Postal Museum  

• Where: Phoenix Place,  London WC1X 0DA
• Nearest Tube Stations: A good ten minute walk from Russell Square, Chancery Lane or King’s Cross/St Pancras Underground stations.
• Tickets: 

It’s possible to visit The Postal Museum and not ride the Mail Rail.  In my opinion, what’s another fiver for another 20 mins of unique fun. The Postal Museum is open from 28 July 2017 with the Mail Rail starting 4 September 2017. 

Buy your tickets online.

Ready To Book Your Ticket for Mail Rail?

Roma was raised on the white sandy beaches of Australia's East Coast, and she has called London home since 2012. With an adventurous spirit, a love of regional travel and anything food related, Roma looks to encourage working professionals to follow their dreams to travel the world one adventure and short break at a time. Don't let a full-time career stop you from seeing the world. Come roam with us!

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Comments (36)

[…] London’s Postal Museum – Fun for Adults as well as Kids […]

[…] Stamp It! London’s Postal Museum […]

This does look fun, I’m going to have to tell my Dad about this as well, he used to work for the Royal Mail years ago, so he’ll find it very interesting. Have you been to Postman’s Park in the City, it’s just north of St Paul’s? It’s a small peaceful place, and has quite a moving memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice.Thanks for sharing

Really fun Janis! It might be nice to surprise him with a ride on the Mail Rail too? Yes of course Postman’s Park is just near St Barts, I really love the memorial tiles. Nice little hidden wonder of London that one 🙂

I love London’s museum scene, so it’s nice to know about two new spots to visit when we head back. Being in Australia, much of our postal history is very tied to the postal culture in London / Britain, and I’m really fascinated by it as my grandfather was a post master for 70 years in Hobart, so we grew up hearing his various stories about how mail delivery had evolved over the years. Every time I watch a war movie I actually do wonder how they got mail to the soldiers, so I’m glad to know the museums answer my nagging questions! Thanks for the heads up about the openings – so awesome that you had the chance for a sneak peak!

Wow Meg, I didn’t know that about your family. Is your grandfather still with us? Maybe you can show him some of the many posts and press releases on the Mail Rail and Postal Museum, it might be of interest. If you’re interested in going, be sure to get your tickets well in advance, they’re being snapped up like hot cakes at a fete!

Thanks for sharing this cool experience! I am ready to book my tickets for the Mail Rail and Postal Museum. I’m always looking for fun, interactive ways to engage my kids in learning – Mail Rail & the museum look like a winner.

Great news Nancy! You’re right, it’s a winner for fun and education. Please give us some feedback on your experience once you’ve visited!

That is a really cool museum. I got hooked on postal museums in Singapore. They have a nice small one with some interesting historical stuff. Stockholm has one too. Obviously, the London one is humongous in comparison. I would love to ride the train :). Thank you for sharing.

Fascinating Elena, I didn’t know about Singapore or Stockholm! Things you learn hey?!

The Postal museum is fascinating. The Mail Rail is something that brings alive the romance of the postal system of the last century. In these days of email and whatsapp communication, the museum would be a fascinating journey into the past.

Absolutely Sandy, an important piece of British history is now available for everyone to experience.

We love learning about history by visiting interactive museums like this! Both of these museums look really neat! The Mail Rail ride looks so interesting–I’d love to get a peek into the tunnels like that. Will have to check both of these spots out!

Great Jenna, let us know if you go, and what you thought of it!

I love that you can take a ride on the mail rail! Seems like such a fun but unique experience!

So unique! I don’t think there’s anything quite like Mail Rail!

I had no idea that this was even a museum. I\’d love to ride the mail rail. Such an interesting part of history!

Yep! The museum just opened Paige, Mail Rail coming in September. There’s still tickets available. *wink wink

I’m ready to book my ticket. The postal museum looks fascinating and a must-do while in London. Seems like a lot of thought was put into the exhibits and stories of the past, like the lioness that escaped the circus and attacked a Mail Coach?! The train ride and visiting the tunnels would be a highlight as well. Thanks for the thorough review.

Please let us know what you think of the museum and Mail Rail if you go Heather. Surely we can’t be the only ones to love it!

Thanks for sharing, that’s a pretty good price! Did you design your own stamp?

I did Michael! Stupidly I didn’t email it to the correct address so I have nothing to show for it. That’s a tip I should include in the post isn’t it? – Be sure to spell your email address correctly!

Looks like a pretty cool experience to ride those little trains! I’m a frequent London visitor but had no idea about this new museum! Thanks for sharing!

Well Kristof if you’re interested there’s still tickets available for the Autumn if you’re planning to be in London then?

So very cool! I’d be in line for the Mail Rail tour on my first day in London. Love the underground areas of urban centers.

Thanks Elaine, best to buy your tickets in advance if you can. London being London things sell out SOOOOO quickly!

This place looks pretty cool. I’m sure it is a lot of fun exploring the postal museum. Thanks for sharing this.

Very cool indeed Indraneil, thanks for your comment 🙂

Wow! this is such a cool place to check out!! i’d love to visit it once in London. Pinning so i don’t forget 🙂

Brilliant Baia, glad you’re able to pin this for later. We love Pinterest too!

Just wow! I\’m a huge history nerd and this looks like an absolute historical paradise. I\’m now dying to visit London just for this museum. Such an incredible trip through the past from the various wars to the Titanic. And completely love that they\’ve branded themselves as the original social media platform. Thanks for sharing this!

I loved the ‘original social media’ concept too, completely original, I’ve not seen that before. Highly recommend the experience Kate if you’re in town, book your tickets early 🙂

Now this I would love to do. But where does the rail go to? I know the old line used to run from Mt Pleasant sorting office (not far from Farringdon) to Paddington I think it was. I am actually interested in this. 😀

I can see you and Clare doing this Danik. The Mail Rail ride is actually a 1km loop so I suppose technically you don’t really go anywhere?! The whole track ran from Paddington to Whitechapel which is pretty darn impressive!

I’m so jealous! I wish the postal museum was around when I lived in London! It sounds like so much fun, and I’m a sucker for nostalgia, I still send hand-written letters.

Come back for a visit Katherine, I’m sure it’ll be standing for a long time to come.

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Visit the Postal Museum to ride the Mail Rail

Going to the postbox used to be an everyday thing.  The Postal Museum and Mail Rail explores the history of the very first social network. Back when I was a BBC News producer, I was talking to the Post Office about a story and they asked if we wanted to film their underground train.  That was the first time that I had heard about Mail Rail.  Now everyone can visit and ride the Mail Rail at the Postal Museum.

Table of Contents

Visiting the Postal Museum

Once upon a time if you wanted to send a letter you needed your own messenger.  The first ever social network came about with the creation of a national postal delivery network that anyone could use for a small fee.  The Postal Museum traces the origins of the system from an efficient way to organise Henry VIII army up today’s daily deliveries. 

My Postal Museum favourite things

Letter boxes in the UK are red everybody knows that.  Turns out that in the early days any old colour was OK until the distinctive red became the norm.  I rather like this fine green and gold Victorian pillar box.

In 1821 the first adhesive stamps were used on letters called the Penny Black.  In my stamp collecting days I was mad keen to see a Penny Black but never did, so was trilled to see a whole sheet of them at the Postal Museum (they don’t photograph well as they are behind an extremely thick sheet of protective glass).  Also on show is the plaster cast of the Queen’s head used on British stamps.  It is one of the most reproduced art works in the world and was made by Arnold Machin.  The first stamps to use it went on sale in 1967. 

When I was a child red telephone boxes could be found everywhere.  How to use a telephone box in case of emergency was an important life skill.  My class at Primary School has a special trip to the Phone Box outside the Village Hall to learn how to use Button A and Button B.  Within a few years decimal currency and new machines made the lessons out of date.  Still it makes me feel very old to have a part of my childhood in a museum.

What is Mail Rail?

What is Mail Rail, I hear you cry.  Mail Rail is a six and a half mile long underground railway line that was dedicated to transporting letters and parcels across London.  Four million letters used to be carried on the trains every single day, 220 staff worked for twenty two hours a day shuttling the mail around the six sorting offices on the network.  The trains were tiny and not designed to carry people, all those letters and parcels hurtled along the dark tunnels on driverless trains. 

Mail Rail history

Back in 1911 London traffic was so bad that severe delays were being caused to the postal system.  Plans for an underground railway were drawn up.  In the 1920’s Mail Rail finally opened running from Whitechapel in the East to Paddington in the West.  Right in middle was the Mount Pleasant sorting office, one of the biggest mail sorting offices in the world.  Mount Pleasant is where you will find the Postal Museum and Mail Rail today.  Driverless trains ran underneath London delivering the post without delays until 2003 when Mail Rail shut.  The stations and tunnels lay quiet and unused until 2017 when part of the network was reopened as part of the Postal Museum.

Riding the Mail Rail

Two trains have been adapted to carry people.  They are very narrow and quite low (I’m six foot and sitting up straight was not possible).  No big bag or coats are allowed on the train, you can stow them in secure lockers on the platform before you board. Once you are seated a glass roof is securely fastened and you set off on your 20 minute journey.  Roy Middlesworth  , who used to work on the Mail Rail is your guide.  At you stop at old stations to watch a film projected onto the station walls.  Tickets for the Mail Rail are included in entry to the Postal Museum.  

Once your ride is over you can explore  interactive displays with some of the very early trains, the history of the route and even the staff lockers.  My favourite part was a sorting carriage which you can board and try to sort the letters as the carriage sways from side to side.

Tunnel Walks

If you are over 12 and have a fondness for high viz jackets and hard hats then a walking tour in the Mail Rail Tunnels is for you.  An expert guide will lead you down the tunnels and tell the stories of both the network and the people who worked on it.  Walks only take place on certain days, check out the Postal Museum website for dates .

Visiting the Postal Museum and Mail Rail

• Postal Museum and Mail Rail , Phoenix Place, Clerkenwell, London WC1X 0DA
• Thursday -Sunday 10am – 5pm (6.30pm on Thursday)
• Postal Museum and Mail Rail, Adults £16, children £9
• Tunnel Walk £55
• Have your ticket stamped to make it an annual pass, you only get one ride on the Mail Rail, extra rides can be paid for.
• Members of the Postal Museum can go as often as they want and three rides on the Mail Rail

Whilst you are visiting the Postal Museum how about visiting either the Charles Dickens Museum , The Foundling Museum , the Museum of the Order of St John or London’s Charterhouse which are all within walking distance.

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My friend was talking about this on Monday, I will have to send her your blog. You never know what’s going on right underneath your feet 🙂

fascinating!

Wow! I used to work for the postal services in Norway, during the summer breaks when I was a college student 🙂

Cool summer holiday job

How cool is this?!! I’m definitely bringing my boys to see this museum over the Christmas holidays! You always find the best activities! #citytripping

Thank you *blushes*

This is SO awesome!! I literally just saw a blip about this underground mail system on CNN the other day! Would be fun to do this! #CityTripping

It is amazing, I just had a huge grin on my face for the whole train ride

I so want to ride on this train! Must sort myself out another trip to London for a bit of fun! 😉 #citytripping

Make sure you book first!

Ahhh I really want to do this! Need to actually get it sorted out, I’ve been saying this for AGES! #citytripping

You do, it is brilliant

I’ve just been reading a Famous Five book to my son which (as they all are) is filled with tunnels and passageways. He would LOVE this Museum, I can’t wait to take him! #citytripping

I used to love the Famous Five

What a fascinating place to visit. I need to go! I think my daughter and I would find it mind-boggling. I do hope letters don’t die out. You can’t beat receiving a handwritten card or letter in the post (although doesn’t happen very often these days)! Thanks for linking #citytripping

I’m glad they’ve created a museum to honour the letter. It’s a bit of a dying breed! I need to go along to this place soon. #citytripping

It will soon be half term!

This is absolutely on our list of things to do soon! It sounds so interesting and right up our street, especially me, as a history buff. We almost went just before the kids were back to school, but didn’t quite manage it – next holidays…… #citytripping

What a fantastic place. This is firmly on our places to visit this Autumn list.

Looks like so much fun. I do love my instant email but there is something much more romantic about these little trains zipping around underground. Thanks for sharing on #FarawayFiles and PS – great to finally meet you in person last night

Great to meet you too!

I had no idea! I’ve never seen this before – so cool! Thanks for sharing with #FarawayFiles, Erin

This is already on our list, thanks so much for sharing Catherine! Lovely post as usual! Question for you please – do you think our 18 months old would get to appreciate or probably best to visit just with the 4 years old? #MondayEscapes

What a lovely discovery! I had no idea this even existed! #MondayEscapes

This is a museum I really want to visit. I think its something about the tunnels and all those letters! Amazing facts! #MondayEscapes

I really want to visit this museum. Think my little one will love when she’s a bit bigger

This is so cool! I’m definitely sending my parents this post for their honeymoon in December. #MondayEscapes

So charming. I would love to visit here! Oh, to return to London!

Four million letters!! Wowzers that’s difficult to imagine isn’t it. What a fascinating place. I’ve never heard of it but I’ll be sure to check it out now I have read this post. Thanks for linking up to #MondayEscapes Catherine.

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Postal Museum – Underground mail train ride

Tickets from £17

Craig’s review… My dad used to be a postman and he liked to tell us that he delivered a letter that didn’t have an address on it, it was just a name – that’s how good he was. And he delivered another letter that didn’t have a name or an address on it. It didn’t even have a letter inside it. It was just an empty envelope. That’s how bloody good he was.

But unless you happen to deliver letters for a living then I’m guessing that a visit to the Postal Museum isn’t exactly at the top of your list of fun things to do in London. But keep reading because there’s something inside here that will definitely make it worth your while… a kilometre-long stretch of underground train track that once carried their clattering mail trains.

Royal Mail exhibition

Before you get to ride the main attraction you have to wander through their exhibition, but fortunately it’s a lot more interesting than you might imagine. (Note: they give you a time slot for the mail train when you enter, so you might end up having to do that first and the exhibition after.)

The story starts off in the days when postmen carried muskets and guns on horse-drawn carriages and did battle with highwaymen and pirates on the sea – not what you were expecting in a postal museum! They’ve also got displays about bi-planes, Penny Farthing post bikes and Penny Black stamps. Then it moves onto WW2 and how the Home Guard kept the post going during the Blitz. They even showcase a few salvaged mailbags from the shipwreck SS Gairsoppa .

The underground mail rail ride

As interesting as the exhibition is, if that was all the museum contained then I wouldn’t recommend it – it’s the underground mail train that makes the place worth visiting. Whilst you’re waiting for your time slot you can take a few photos of the carriages lined up in front of the tunnel and you’ll be surprised at their tiny size – they look like toy trains, like a funfair ride, the kind of ride that trundles around the perimeter of a zoo. You’ve got to remember that they were built to carry mailbags, not people, so they’re not exactly roomy inside.

The sides of the carriage are just six inches from your skin and the tunnel walls are barely six inches from the train. You practically have to sit with a stoop to stop your head bumping against the roof. I hope you don’t suffer from claustrophobia!

Then the driver descends into the turning tunnel and pick up some speed. This is when it starts to sound a lot like the London Underground – you get all the same roars and metallic screeches and flickering lights that you get on the tube, but now you’re screaming past sandbags, wires and pipes just inches from the window.

After a few minutes he stops at an abandoned platform and projects a movie onto the wall so you can learn a little of its history. Then he’s off again into the next tunnel where he slows up and stops for a pretend power-cut. It reminded me of that mine ride in Indiana Jones .

So is it worth a visit? Well it’s certainly quite pricey, but they’re charging you for the mail train ride which is a lot of fun. If you’re too claustrophobic to do that then don’t bother with the rest.

Worth a visit? ★ ★ ★ Value for money? ★ ★ ☆ Good for kids? ★ ★ ☆ Easy to get to? ★ ★ ★

I also recommend… . If you enjoy riding around on trains then check out my review of the Docklands Light Railway

Related articles and events

Dressed to Deliver -- Uniforms at the Postal Museum

Your comments and questions

PWeah We loved it! Who would have imagined that a museum about the postal service would be so much fun! Our nine year old loved the train and thought it was the highlight of our holiday

Fi Museum was boring and mail train was too short. Not worth the high price, the museum should be free and they should charge only for the ride

Pete @Fi the museum interesting but not everybody will be interested in the post, I guess. But how can you not enjoy the train ride? What an atmospheric thrill ride. Because the trains are so small and the tunnels are so narrow it is a thrill ride

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The Mail Rail Ride – Riding Through History as a Letter in London

When I first visited Venice, Italy, I remember buying handmade paper by the sheet.  It was elegant, unique and something I wanted to write on.  But what to write?  What was worthy of this special paper?  As silly as it sounds now, that paper could only be used for a love letter, those love letters featured in newspaper articles, the ones shown in the movies, the ones found years later that evoked tears of happiness and sadness. The letter that would have been put in the mailbox to work its magic across the city, state, oceans, etc. to arrive in the mailbox of the intended paramour.  The logistics of the letter delivery lost to the sender and recipient but happily recreated by the Postal Museum and Mail Rail in London showcasing the transit of that letter across London (and the world).

The problem was I didn’t have a love to write to so I saved that paper as a piece of art – it really is a piece of art in the craftsmanship as well as in the intent.  An intent lost today in the world of swiping left and right, a world full of emojis and disappearing messages and one that “likes” my post but doesn’t actually converse with me.  That paper reminds me of history, a history of conversations that often took days or even weeks to initiate and continue.  A time when I had pen pals in Australia and Italy.

The Post Office Railway “Mail Rail” is Born

It’s easy to romanticize the piece of paper and the letter because it all seemed so simple in the early days (at least the movies and books make me feel that way). Central in all of this letter writing and waiting for the postman is the post office – the logistics of how that letter leaves your hands and gets into another is fascinating.  And in London, they found a new way to get the mail moving across the city by moving it underground.  Why bother with the mess, traffic and time-consuming horse-drawn carriages above ground when you can utilize the tunnels underground?  And thus the London Post Office Railway “rebranded Mail Rail in 1987” was born.

The underground mail tunnels were born to transport mail across London (about 6.5 miles of tracks) with multiple stops at key destinations in the city between Paddington and Whitechapel stations.  At each platform, men would have little time (about a minute) to remove the sacks of mail and replace them with other sacks that arrived by chute in an operation that ran nearly 22 hours a day.  The work was physically demanding and exhausting.  But logistically it was so advanced in my opinion.  The trains were driverless and controlled centrally.  If you ever need to be “wowed” just try to fathom the London underground system and this mail tunnel built so long ago. Visiting the London Transport Museum is a great complement to the Postal Museum Rail Mail visit.

For nearly 75 years, the mail traveled underground across London but as new forms of communications were born namely the telephone, fax and then ultimately the smart phone, the mail rail was nearing the end of its efficiency and usefulness in a world less interested in the letters and more focused on emoji’s and quick hits of texts.  The mail rail train was eventually decommissioned in 2003 but lucky us that Royal Mail decided to open up (in 2017) the Mont Pleasant station and build a wonderful attraction that celebrates the era long gone.  Mail Rail is part of the Royal Mail Postal Museum.

Where to Find Mail Rail at the Royal Mail Postal Museum

The Postal Museum is hidden industrial building about 15 minutes walking from Chancery Lane (Central Line) tube station.  Following Google Maps I was led down laneways and small roads away from the crazy that is The City.  The beige factory like building across from the empty lot with cranes ready to build a new London structure was easy to find and it took a few doors down to enter the Postal Museum shop.  The security guard directs you to leave all bags (purses, backpacks, etc.) and coats in the storage lockers (need to deposit £1 coin in the locker as security).  The staff member checks your ticket time before showing you the stairs to descend to the attraction.

Note: Buy your Mail Rail Ride ticket in advance online as there are a limited number of riders and time slots.  You can visit the Postal Museum without riding Mail Rail but for the best experience, plan ahead. 

Riding the Mail Rail Ride at the Postal Museum

When you enter the large room the video projection is on the right hand side which provides a short film history of mail rail.  Around the room are various descriptive boards and the main attraction is on the left – the small trains that have been upgraded to (snugly) fit people into the compartments that used to carry mail bags.

When your ticket time is listed you go queue (line) up and wait to board.  You can leave all bags, coats, etc. in the cubbies if you want (avoiding the deposit lockers upstairs).  Then you are asked to board (or smush into) the train in pairs.  As I was solo, I was allowed to be by myself.  The trains limit tickets to 20 people per time slot so lucky for me I didn’t have to share the small space with a stranger that day.

The glass overhead is closed to secure the train (claustrophobic feel for some) and the driver has a short announcement before we are off and the audio tour begins (speakers overhead).  The narration follows the train and we stop at the first platform to see a video projection of the history of mail, the mail rail and London.  It’s a bit Disney-fied which frankly was a great touch.  The experience transports you back in time and follows the letters, the workers and the people behind the stories over the years.

The fifteen minute ride is not enough as everyone moans upon returning to the platform.  The cost to fully restore all of the stations to take the train across the city is not feasible.  The one station and back is just enough to provide insight into the mail rail history.  You then disembark to walk through the small but nicely curated postal museum and mail rail displays with a few interactive sections.

Royal Mail Postal Museum and Rail Mail Exhibits

The U-shaped exhibit area begins when you disembark the Mail Rail Train.  The wall showcases a map listing the stations across London that the Mail Rail serviced.  Next to the map is the train driver’s car used to maintain and ride the rails – super small if you try to climb in – I tried and didn’t fit. Second is the workers storage lockers, a few intact from the final days of service.  The interactive part is for children mostly to try on the equipment and clothes.  In this area there is also a tool box to show a few of the necessary objects needed to maintain the mail rail train cars, tracks and other equipment at the platforms.

As you walk through the history of the mail rail, each section is a glaring reminder to an industrial mechanical age.  There is the control center which provided updates as to the location of the trains which were unmanned and ran on their schedule.  The display to show the large leather satchels on a mail on a hook that the train delivered as it passed by.  There is an interactive travelling post office (mail train) train car that provides a timed game to sort the mail as the train moves from side to side (I beat the clock and sorted the mail but was annoyed it wasn’t alphabetical to make it easier). Now imagine the train is moving at regular speed and like a pinball machine you are bouncing side to side against co-workers as you sort the mail.

My Mail Rail Ride & Postal Museum Experience

As a super fan of all the “How it’s Made” and “How Do they do that” type of TV shows, documentaries and behind the scenes films, I was super intrigued by all of the displays and the history of Mail Rail. For a unique peek into the history of London and its postal service, a visit to Mail Rail is a must.  The kids growing up today, in my opinion, are so far removed from mail and the post office they may one day never know the feeling of receiving a hand written letter or postcard and that would be a shame.  I’m glad Royal Mail has created this small slice of history to share with everyone.  A visit takes about an hour so you can easily fit this into your London itinerary .

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2 thoughts on “ The Mail Rail Ride – Riding Through History as a Letter in London ”

I recently heard about the Mail Rail and have thought about visiting it on my next trip to London. Alas, I can get rather claustrophobic and am a bit afraid to try it. Thanks for this post–very informative!

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Like Love London

A blog all about loving London

The Mail Rail & Postal Museum London

by Donna Vallance 4 Comments

Table of Contents

The Mail rail museum and the  London Postal Museum  are dedicated to the British postal service. This family-friendly museum sends you on a journey back through time to the start of our first postal service. This is by far one of the most interactive and interesting museums in central London. at the Mail Rail and Postal Museum you can explore the underground network of the post office underground railway. This post office railway took you to Mount Pleasant station in original tunnels under London’s streets. Let’s look at everything you need to know about visiting the  Mail Rail & Postal Museum London.

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Suppose you are looking for somewhere interesting to go in London city why not try the Postal Museum London. The Postal Museum and Railway also known as The Mail Rail in London and is run by the Postal Heritage Trust. The Mail Rail and The Postal Museum London make for an interesting day out. You can ride through the hidden tunnels under the city and discover the history of The Royal Mail. There are many amazing interactive exhibitions and play spaces throughout as well as zones for younger children making it a great day for all. Not only this you learn all about the history of royal mail and the story of postal communication.

Everything you need to know about Riding the Mail Rail and visiting the Postal Museum London

On your way to the postal museum try a walking tour.

On your way to the Postal Museum, why not try a walking tour? You can download one of the Royal Museums’ free walking trails to get from the station to the Postal Museum.

The Postal Museum London has amazing walking trails you can download to make getting to the postal museum more interesting too.

Learn the history of the Mail Rail at the Postal Museum of London

The museum goes into great detail about the history of the Mail rail and the postal service itself. The Mail rail runs underground and you can try it out for yourself.

75 years ago when the rail was first built it started delivering letters; the driverless trains became the first of its kind in the world.

In 1911 plans were made to build an underground tunnel to serve the main sorting offices along the route. Work was started in 1915 and it was finally finished in 1927 and letters were carried from 1928. Thus cutting down the time it took to get post across the city. In 2003 The Postal Museum and Railway was closed due to it being cheaper to run the post by road.

The Mail consists of 22 miles of track with eight stations and at its peak carried 4 million letters a day. Mail rail ran from Mount Pleasent post office and helped deliver the post underground as far as Paddington in the west and Whitechapel in the east.

Want to make it into a breakaway? Check out these amazing places to stay in London .

All Aboard the mail rail!

You can now travel the Mail Rail and experience for yourself what it was like for the workers to be underground. Ride through the hidden tunnels in a custom-built train and discover the history of this heritage.

The ride itself takes approximately 20 minutes and you will be on one of two trains with a clear roof.

Your ticket price gives you a time slot to ride the train. You can put your Bags in lockers on the ground floor or in the cupboards by the side of the platform. You will then board a miniature train and adventure into the world of postal workers. 

Whilst in the tunnel you will see it as it was left and used throughout its working life, it would of been a hive of activity back in the day.

Throughout the ride the train stops and huge film projections are displayed on the tunnel walls. These films detail the journey the mail rail took through the ages since it was opened.

Learn the history of the Mail Rail in the Exhibition.

After your train ride, you can discover the exhibition at the Mail rail museum exhibition. With many interactive exhibits such as controlling the line and original trains to board, it is great fun for kids and adults alike. You will see the equipment used and you can even dress up as a train driver yourself. It is really interesting to learn about the workers their roles and the trains.

‘Sorted’ The play Post area for kids at the Postal Museum London

Before you leave the Rail Mail premises be sure to take any little ones to the “Sorted” play area to let off some steam. They can post letters, sort mail and generally have fun in this interactive area.

The Postal Museum London exhibits

After your postal railway ride on the tiny train, you can experience the exhibits in the museum. The journey in the  postal museum  takes you on a different story learning about the history of the post and where it originated.

The first letters were sent by Henry VIII to keep a close eye on the kingdom. You will see also see uniforms worn by the people that worked the mail and the flintlock pistols they used to protect themselves.

The stunning mail coach dates from around 1800 and is stunning.

The early years of the post system

The post office launched the world’s first postage stamp the  penny black stamp in 1840. It was now a penny to send a letter weighing up to half an ounce anywhere in the country.

As it became easier to send letters, pretty envelopes became very popular and were often designed by authors; there are many of these displayed around in the showcases.

All around the museum are interactive buttons to press with noises and costumes for you to dress up in. You can send telegrams and even pick up an old telephone and listen to extracts of old letters.

You can have great fun watching your letter shoot up a pneumatic tube shoot to the other side of the museum. I wonder if you will get a reply. The level of interaction in the museum is pure genius.

Learn fun facts about post boxes!

Did you know that post boxes were originally Green Pillar boxes?

There are many pillar boxes throughout the museum. But did you know they used to be green? In 1874 they become Red after people said they were dreary and hard to see.

In the Second World War, the tops of the pillar boxes were painted white so that people could see them during a blackout.

Learn all about the Postal service during the war and the telegram boys

Learn about the Royal Mail as it travels through the First World War and the Second. Real lantern slides tell a story while war sirens play in the background.

I loved the old letters and postcards on display. It must have been wonderful the number of letters written years ago that actually meant something.

Many of the mail Motorbikes in the 1930s were ridden by men as young as 16. During the war, these bikes became known as the ‘Angels of Death’ as they had the unhappy task of delivering the news of soldiers killed on the front line.

Find out all about Airmail at the Postal Museum.

With the arrival of Airmail in the 1920s speed was important. Bluepost boxes appeared on the streets in the 1930s which helped advertise Airmail much faster.

There is a large section where you can flick through old postal magazines and see the changes the stamps took through the decades. Up until 1965 most stamps showed the monarch; we then started to see stamps with artwork. Some of the artwork is truly stunning, my favourite being the little Robin Redbreast.

As the museum progresses you start to learn about how the mail works today in the form of short films.

There is an arts and craft workshop for children that runs from 11.00-13.00 and then again from 14.00-16.00. Today’s task was to try sending your own message in a bottle.

The current exhibition space is ‘Writing Home’, exploring the letters sent from people communicating with their family at home and their experiences. The Postal Museum and Railway hold many exhibitions and events so check their website for details.

Postal Museum London souvenir shop

There is plenty of bits and pieces in the shop to tempt you, and a cafe serving coffee snacks and cakes.

The Discovery Room and archives at the Post Office Museum

The Discovery Room holds all of the Hub for all of the museum’s archives. Researchers or students can find lots of information here. Family researchers can find out about relatives who may have worked in the Royal Mail from the archival books. There is a huge electronic tablet on which you can explore the archives of photos, documents and stamps kept by the Royal Mail. The Discovery Centre is a complete learning resource centre for the public.

I hope you enjoyed my tour of The Postal Museum and Railway. For more information and to purchase tickets please see The Postal Museum and Railway website.

Did you know there is a Park in London Called Postman’s Park where Postmen and woman had their lunch? This now holds some amazing heroic plaques on the wall go take a look here

Where is the postal museum london.

The Postal Museum London address is ;

The Postal Museum 15-20 Phoenix Place London WC1X 0DA

How do I get to the Postal Museum London?

The closest underground tube stations are Barbican , Chancery Lane and Kings cross and Russell Square . Most of these stations are less than a mile away and a short walk.

When you arrive the Mail Rail is on the opposite side of the road to the postal museum.

This post originally appeared on Likelovedo.com Royal Mail Rail and was a courtesy visit thanks to The Postal Museum and Railway. These are all my own personal Opinions.

About Like Love London! Welcome to Donna Vallance’s London Uncovered, where we explore the city of London and encounter the charm of its hidden gems! I’m Donna, your guide to the secret corners, untold stories, and delightful discoveries that make London truly extraordinary

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Where is this please?

You can find it at The postal museum 15/20 Phoenix place, London WC1X 0DL

Excellent review.

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What To Expect From The Mail Rail

Londoners now have a chance to ride a tiny, cramped, train under central London!

“But… I do that every weekday?!” I hear you say.

Not like this you don’t, welcome to the Mail Rail! A secret tunnel network that used to carry London’s post 22 hours a day.

A Quick History

In 1911, facing congested roads and unacceptable delays, the Royal Mail had a radical idea. They built a 6.5 mile underground railway between Paddington and Whitechapel to carry letters.

The route had platforms just like the tube today, serving major sorting offices through central London.

Post would be loaded into tiny (2ft wide) carriages to be shuttled through the city, an efficient system which carried over 4 million letters a day in their 1930s peak!

This all lasted until 2003, when Royal Mail announced using the service was round 5 times more expensive than trucks (though workers disputed this). Mail Rail, as it was known since 1987, was mothballed and the tunnels lay unused.

Image © The Postal Museum – Miles Willis 

Going Underground

The Postal Museum opened in July 2017 and launched the Mail Rail experience in September, meaning you can now traverse the secret underground system!

The trains are pretty cramped, two can just about squeeze next to each other, but there’s no leaning on the doors. Like the tube today, you’ll stop the train and get a driver announcement, much to the ire of your fellow passengers!

Managed to ride the fabulous @thepostalmuseum ‘s #MailRail today! 🤓 pic.twitter.com/azzF1Haxzn — Look Up London (@Look_UpLondon) September 11, 2017

Along the 20 minute ride, there’s a wealth of interesting things to spot, all pointed out by your guide and ex-mail rail employee; Ray Middlesworth.

A surprise was the fantastic projections.

They bring the abandoned platforms to life with stories through the ages; anecdotes of power failures, when the River Fleet burst into the tunnels and the 1943 bomb that crashed onto the tracks. Our disembodied guide Ray proudly tells us that the Mail Rail was up and running the very next day!

The idea for a subterranean network was first dreamt up by the Victorians. From 1863, mail travelled around 3m underground propelled by air pressure in self-driving metal cars along rails. It ran until 1866 then again between 1873 – 74, but was later abandoned.

The system was only for mail, but that didn’t stop some daredevil Victorians…

In 1863 The London Journal reported that a lady “whose courage or rashness – we know not which to call it – astonished all spectators, was actually shot the whole length of the tube without injury to person or petticoat!”

Even after your ride, there’s still loads to explore…

The Postal Museum

A museum showcasing the ‘first social network’, the museum’s highlights include a sheet of the first stamps; The Penny Black and plenty of other postal trivia.

Queen Victoria ‘London Ornate’ Pillar Box 1857-59

Visiting The Postal Museum and Mail Rail

You can pre book a timed slot for the Mail Rail on the museum website here , but there’s also a few left available on the day. Tickets cost £16 and include entrance to the museum (museum only tickets are £11). There’s also concession rates available.

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The mail rail: exploring forgotten london.

Suggest to a Londoner that the highlight of a fun day out in London was riding in a cramped, underground train and they would probably look at you in disbelief.

“But don’t I do that most days?” they would ask.

But this is not the London Underground. This is the Mail Rail, London, the Post Office’s own underground railway and the scene-stealer of London’s Postal Museum.

Some articles on this website contain affiliate links. This means that I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through these links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases . Read the full disclosure here .

The History of the Mail Rail, London

Congestion on London’s streets is not a new phenomenon.

In 1911, the Royal Mail was worried. Roads clogged with slow-moving horses and carts – the average speed was 6 mph – were causing delays in postal deliveries. Time meant money and they needed a traffic-proof delivery system.

The Mail Rail was a radical solution to this problem.

In 1914, construction began on a 6.5-mile underground railway between Paddington and Whitechapel. Temporarily thwarted by World War I, the Rail Mail finally opened for business on December 1927.

This network of narrow tunnels, 70 feet below the surface, linked six sorting offices with mainline stations at Paddington and Liverpool Street. At its peak in the 1930s, the driverless Mail Rail transported four million letters each day, with a train every four minutes, 22 hours a day.

It was those clever Victorians who first dreamt up a subterranean network. Intermittently from 1863, they dabbled with pneumatic chutes 3 m below the surface but abandoned this idea in 1874.

With the closure of sorting offices and soaring operating costs, against the background of cheaper road transport, the Mail Rail carried its last sack of letters in 2003. Various plans for the decommissioned subterranean labyrinth were then proposed, including an underground mushroom farm and a cycleway. But in 2017, the Mail Rail was reopened for human cargo as part of the Postal Museum.

Riding the Mail Rail

This is not a train ride for those with a fear of small, enclosed spaces.

Five feet high and 65 feet long, this electric train squeezes its passengers in two abreast. With the track a mere 2 meters wide, to say that it’s a snug fit is putting it mildly. Clear plastic windows and a roof insulate you from the tunnel atmosphere, adding to the claustrophobic feel.

Your disembodied ‘guide’ for the 20-minute train ride is the ex-Royal Mail employee, Ray Middlesworth, who narrates points of interest along the way and supplies anecdotes. Abandoned platforms are brought to life with spectacular projections.

Visiting the Postal Museum, London

The Mail Rail is part of London’s Postal Museum, and the museum itself should not be missed.

Highlights of The Postal Museum include a sheet of the first stamps, vintage postal carriages, post boxes and a selection of posters and magazines from the 1950s and 60s.

It is a very interactive museum and is, therefore, is great for kids (and for the young at heart).

The Mail Rail exhibition allows would-be train drivers to operate the lever frame and race pneumatic cars. Budding postmen can don the flat cap and trench coat of a travelling postal worker.

In the Postal Service exhibition, I had great fun creating a stamp with my head on it. My stamp of approval for the Rail Mail and London’s Postal Museum if you like.

How to get to the Mail Rail and Postal Museum

There are separate entrances to the Mail Rail and Postal Museum, on opposite sides of the road from each other. The address is 15 – 20 Phoenix Place, London WC1X 0DA .

The museum is a short walk from Kings Cross, Farringdon, Chancery Lane or Russell Square Tube stations.

London Postal Museum & Rail Mail opening hours and ticket price

The Mail Rail and Postal Museum are open from 10 am to 5 pm, Wednesday to Sunday. In 2024, the cost of an adult ticket is £17 (£16 if you book online). Reduced rates are available for those under the age of 25.

Check opening times and ticket prices here .

The London Postal Museum and Mail Rail are among the attractions included in the London Pass and London Explorer Pass .

Your ticket includes unlimited access to The Postal Museum for one year from the date of your visit and one ride on Mail Rail, valid on your first visit to the Museum.

As this is a popular day out, I recommend booking tickets in advance.

Enjoy your ride on London’s Mail Rail!

It is both fun and informative, catering for all age groups. Riding along this small stretch of track that has been hidden for so many years is a unique experience, and the history of the railway is presented in an engaging way. It is also an excellent way to spend a few hours if you are a solo traveller in London !

If you are looking for other under-the-radar London museums, take a look at these local favourites:

• Museum of Brands, London: A Nostalgic Time Machine
• Visiting the Cinema Museum, London: A Journey Into Cinematic Past
• 5 Reasons Why You Should Visit The Horniman Museum, London

About Bridget

Bridget Coleman is a Londoner who has been a passionate traveller for more than 30 years. She has visited 70+ countries, most as a solo traveller.

Articles on this site reflect her first-hand experiences.

To get in touch, email her at [email protected] or follow her on social media.

Secret underground Royal Mail railway to reopen in London

Aug 20, 2019 • 1 min read

Part of the Mail Rail, a little-known 22-mile driverless electric railway that runs beneath the streets of London , will open to the public next year.

The line, which opened in 1927 and was the first railway of its kind in the world, shuttled mail between sorting offices. It closed in 2003 but a stretch of it will reopen as part of the £26 million Postal Museum, which is opening in spring 2017 in Mount Pleasant, in Clerkenwell . The museum will cover five hundred years of British  post, from Henry VIII to the Titanic and the post office cats, who once had their own wage slips and pension schemes. Read more: theguardian.com

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Geek's Guide

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Going underground: The Royal Mail's great London train squeeze

Uber cars, amazon drones pah driverless deliveries from a different age.

Geek's Guide to Britain For the last 13 years, a tiny train tunnel running through the centre of London has remained empty and unused, maintained by just four engineers. But these engineers don’t work for Transport for London or Network Rail – they work for the Royal Mail.

The small gauge tunnel, running for 10.46km (6.5 miles) from Paddington to Whitechapel, 70 feet (21 meters) beneath the ground is the London Post Office Railway, more commonly known as the Mail Rail. From 1927 to 2003, 50 driverless, electric trains shifted 30,000 items each day, running up to every five minutes during peak times, serving eight stations and major sorting office beneath the snarl of urban traffic overhead.

Now, it’s set to become London’s latest tourist attraction, as The Postal Museum and Mail Rail in 2017 to reopen the section that runs underneath Mount Pleasant in Farringdon. Eventually, there’ll be a new museum, café, gift shop and all the trappings, but on the day of El Reg ’s visit, it’s all hard hats and high-vis vests.

A small group of us are getting a guided preview of the Mail Rail attraction, with a tour through the Mount Pleasant depot and its two station platforms. We’re walked through a very small door and down some industrial stairs by Ray Middlesworth, a railwayman since the Mail Rail was still running and still an engineer for Royal Mail.

Below is a fitting room and depot, where Mail Rail trains were loaded, offloaded and repaired when the trains were running. In its heyday, the two-foot, narrow-gauge driverless railway called at eight stations along the way, including the largest at Mount Pleasant. But by the end of its life, the Mail Rail was only stopping at three stations, as sorting offices were moved out of central London to the boroughs.

“The closure was more down to the fact that the offices it served were changing, the process by which mail was processed was changing and the mainline rail trains were no longer going out of Liverpool Street and Paddington than cost,” explained Chris Taft, head of collections at the museum, told me after the tour.

Mail Rail tunnels ran 10.46km (6.5 miles) from Paddington to Whitechape, photo: the Postal Museum and Mail Rail

Despite the decision to close things down, Royal Mail were stuck with underground tunnels. The railway was originally built by order of Parliament - so technically - it belongs to the public. Even though Royal Mail wasn’t using the railway any more, it still had an obligation to keep the tunnels safe and dry and ensure there were no collapses or other potential dangers. Which is how Middlesworth hung onto his job.

Middlesworth worked for more than a decade on the Mail Rail when it was running and has spent the last twelve working with three other engineers on upkeep. Down in the depot, he describes a real camaraderie between the workers, who called themselves railwaymen, working long shifts to cover the almost constant running of the network. The trains operated for 22 hours a day every weekday, with the other two hours used for maintenance work.

“It’s nice to see it being put to use again!” he told The Reg .

The project to turn the Mail Rail into a tourist attraction will give visitors a Postal Museum covering centuries of the Royal Mail’s operation and across the road, the chance to ride the Mail Rail.

“The total project is £22m to open up the Postal Museum, which will be a brand new museum telling the total communication and design story across five centuries. It will explore the need to communicate that people have had and how that’s happened and how it’s changed over the years,” said Taft.

“And then on the opposite side of the road will be Mail Rail, which will be an immersive experience where you can go in and take the train journey and explore the railway through 3D interpretation and audio-visual presentations. And there’ll also be an exhibition space in the former maintenance workshop in the railway. It’ll be a real opportunity to fully explore the railway and the part it played in the much broader story of postal communication.”

Although work has started on the Postal Museum, the station and platforms under Mount Pleasant had – when I visited - been virtually untouched. In the depot, one train, which is an example of one built in 1980, still sat on the tracks. This one had been refitted with small seats and was used during a Christmas party the Royal Mail had for local disadvantaged children a few years ago.

No post today: the first cargo since 2003 in Mail Rail's old tunnels will be tourists, copyright Miles Willis and the Postal Museum

On the walls were a strange combination of new health and safety notices along with old bulletins for rail workers, while paint peeled from the ceiling and ancient-looking yellow loading equipment sat idle.

To get to the platforms, our group headed back up the stairs and then through a section of the Mount Pleasant sorting office, past sacks of post, and down a large industrial elevator. As you walk out, a blue map of the system is displayed - clearly for engineers, not visitors - signposted with a mess of indecipherable acronyms and numbers. And everywhere, on nuts, bolts and iron beams, is stamped “GPO”, lest you forget you’re not in a regular Underground station.

Here, no-one but Middlesworth and the other three engineers maintaining the tunnels have frequented in many years and the Royal Mail will soon have to think about training up some new staff to keep them up.

“The three engineers I started with, they’ve all retired now,” said Middlesworth, “And I’ll be next!“

The Royal Mail’s policy has been to only have engineers who staffed the working Mail Rail come back as maintenance engineers, but those ranks are running out.

Schedules allowed a maintenance window of two hours a day, photo:

the Postal Museum and Mail Rail

“They used to say: once a railwayman, always a railwayman,” said Middlesworth. “But they’ll have to think of something else soon!”

Despite the smaller gauge of the tunnels, the platforms are very much like a rather dishevelled and much older Underground station. Just a (very) small engine for pushing and pulling loading carts is on the tracks and Middlesworth gamely agrees to take it for a little spin up and down to show it off to the visitors. Although clearly in need of some TLC, it’s much easier to see here how visitors will be excited to come down and take a short ride on a small engine.

At the time of my visit, firm plans on what the tourist experience would be like were still being made, with a number of ideas floating around, including making use of 3D scans of the tunnels for apps or augmented reality on the tour.

“We’ve had 3D scans done of the railway and had it digitally mapped, which would allow us to create some sort of augmented reality. But exactly what we’ll do with that depends on where technology goes and funding as well,” Taft explained.

Visitors will do a loop from Mount Pleasant and back for a ride of around 15 to 20 minutes, giving the museum two platforms to refurbish. Another idea that’s been floated is to restore one platform to the 1940s era and another to modern times to give tourists a sense of the history behind the Mail Rail.

Fifty trains shifted 30,000 items each 22-hour day, photo: Postal Museum and Mail Rail

Although the trains didn’t take to the tracks until 1927, construction had started on the project as much as 14 years earlier. A lack of labour and materials during the First World War halted construction, but did give the government a handy place to store precious art and artefacts.

“Construction on it started in 1912, 1913 so by the time of the war, the tunnel was largely complete but the tracks and the electric works hadn’t taken place,” said Taft. “So they used it for storage of paintings and artefacts from important collections in the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Academy and others.

“During WWII, it carried on with its main function. Postal communication was very important during the war and the ability to move the mail underground was a big advantage,” he added.

The original plan to build the underground railway evolved in 1911 and the contract was given to John Mowlem and Co, to help the Royal Mail avoid the huge delays horse-drawn traffic was causing around the capital. A report that said that London traffic would never allow for speeds of greater than 6mph convinced MPs to sign an Act of Parliament for a railway that could move mail at 40mph under the city.

Most of the line was constructed using the Greathead shield system for tunnelling, with a small amount of hand-mining for connecting the tunnels at the stations. And when it opened, it was the world’s only electric underground railway devoted to transporting the post.

The main line is at a depth of around 70 feet, but the stations are at a much shallower depth, with gradients into the stations to help slow down trains entering and accelerate the ones taking off. Stations had to be closer to the surface to help workers in loading and unloading the millions of pieces of post that were transported every week, a job Middlesworth describes understatedly as “pretty hard work.”

At one point, there were around 220 workers on the Mail Rail, but by April 2003, when Royal Mail announced its closure, that staff was much reduced to cater for just three stations and the cost of keeping the train going had become more than using road transport.

The Postal Museum was not the first to come up with an idea for the disused tunnels in the last decade or so, as Taft explains, although no other plan has gotten this far.

“There have been a number of suggestions over the year, but none of them have really gotten anywhere. There was a suggestion that it could be used as an underground conveyance for shops under Oxford Street for example, as a service tunnel to get goods to and fro.

“There were also suggestions of using it as a sort of conduit for air-conditioning into the Tube, to circulate cold air. That got a little way down the thinking, but eventually it fell by the way side,” he said.

“No ideas really worked out well because the railway is very limited. It only goes to where it goes and it’s very difficult now to find a connection to let it out above ground.”

Today's Mail Rail trains for 20-minute underground trips, copyright Miles Willis and the Postal Museum

In fact, if anything, it’s been a bit of a nuisance at times, as other rail projects like the Tube and Crossrail have has to be factored into their building projects.

“Crossrail has had to work round the Mail Rail tunnels at times… it gets very close to it. But with underground work, you can go under or over things so there are places where Underground lines pass quite close under or over,” said Taft.

The Mail Rail tourist attraction will only use up a section of the line, leased by the Postal Museum from the Royal Mail, to carry around 20 passengers at a time on newly designed miniature trains, commissioned from transport engineering specialist Severn Lamb.

The existing trains, some of which have been sold off to private owners or given to museums, couldn’t be refitted for tourists due to their size. The tube is just a single 2.7m diameter tunnel with two tracks, which then diverges into single-track 2.1m diameter tubes to lead into the station. That makes the driverless trains that run inside pretty small, although they have been used in the past to take people through the tunnels.

Still a major Royal Mail sorting office, Mount Pleasant was a key network station, photo: Gavin Clarke

As well as their small size, which as Middlesworth explains, was partially to give them clearance off the track due to the weight of mail inside, the trains are also driverless. For the visitor attraction, a driver is much more preferable in case of emergencies and to ensure the safety of passengers.

It’s clear that Middlesworth has loved being a railwayman and will be happy to see at least part of the Mail Rail back in operation again when the visitor attraction opens next year. While what will happen to the rest of the track might remain a mystery for now, the Mail Rail tourist ride is already attracting a lot of interest and the museum is confident it will be a hit with visitors.

In our era of IoT hype, with tech firms and their cheerleaders in the Silicon Valley press poring over every piece of Uber car and Amazon drone minutiae, it's re-assuring to know the Brits were there first when it came to driverless vehicles delivering packages - courtesy of the Royal Mail.®

51.524784, -0.114077

By train: Underground to Farringdon is the closest station to Mount Pleasant. By bus: 63, 341, 19 and 38 stop nearby. Entrance for Postal Museum and Mail Rail when it opens is on Phoenix Place.

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Ride The Mail Rail at The Postal Museum and Railway

The postal museum and railway also known as the mail rail is now open.

The Mail Rail and The Postal Museum London and Railway make for an interesting day out. You can ride through the hidden tunnels and discover and explore the history of The Royal Mail. There is an interactive exhibition and an amazing play zone for younger children making it a great day for all.

AD | I have been compensated, or could be compensated, if you click on a link in this post via a cash payment, gift or something else of value for writing this post. See our full disclosure policy and privacy policy for more details.

Learn the history of the Mail Rail

75 years ago when the rail was first built it started delivering letters, the driverless trains became the first of its kind in the world.

In 1911 plans were made to build an underground tunnel to serve the main sorting offices along the route. Work was started in 1915 and it was finally finished in 1927 and letters were carried from 1928. Thus cutting down the time it took to get post across the city. In 2003 The Postal Museum and Railway was closed due to it being cheaper to run the post by road.

The Mail consists of 22 miles of track with eight stations and at its peak carried 4 million letters a day. Mail rail ran from Mount Pleasent post office and helped deliver the post underground as far as Paddington in the west and Whitechapel in the east.

All Aboard!

You can now travel the Mail Rail and experience for yourself what it was like for the workers to be underground. Ride through the hidden tunnels in a custom built train and discover the history of this heritage.

The ride itself takes approximately 20 minutes and you will be on one of two trains with a clear roof.

Your ticket gives you a time slot to ride the train. You can put your Bags in lockers on the ground floor or in the cupboards by the side of the platform.

Whilst in the tunnel you will see it as it was left and used throughout its working life, it would of been a hive of activity back in the day.

Throughout the ride the train stops and huge film projections are displayed on the tunnel walls. These films detail the journey the mail rail took through the ages since it was opened.

After your train ride you can discover the exhibition. With many interactive exhibits such as controlling the line and original trains to board it is great fun for kids and adults alike. You will see equipment used and you can even even dress up as train driver yourself. It is really interesting to learn about the workers their roles and and about the trains.

‘Sorted’ The play Post area

Before you leave the Rail Mail premises be sure to take any little ones to Sorted the play area to let off some steam. They can post letters, sort mail and an generally have fun in this interactive area.

The Postal museum

The journey in the postal museum takes you on a different story learning about the history of the post and where it originated.

The first letters were sent by Henry the VIII to keep a close eye on the kingdom. You will see uniform worn by the people that worked the mail and the pistols they used to protect themselves.

The stunning mail coach dates from around 1800 and is stunning.

The early years

The post office launched its first penny black stamp in 1840. It was now a penny to send a letter weighing up to half an ounce anywhere in the country.

As it became easier to send letters, pretty envelopes became very popular and were often designed by authors, there are many of these displayed around in the showcases.

All around the museum are interactive buttons to press with noises and costumes for you to dress up in. You can send telegrams and even pick up an old telephone and listen to extracts of old letters.

You can have great fun watching your letter shoot up a pneumatic shoot to the other side of the museum. I wonder if you will get a reply? The level of interaction in the museum is pure genius.

Green Pillar boxes?

There are many pillar boxes throughout the museum. But did you know they used to be green? In 1874 they become Red after people said they were dreary and hard to see.

In the Second World War the tops of the piller boxes were painted white so that people could see them during a black out.

Post, the war and the telegram boys

Learn about the Royal Mail as it travels through the First World War and the Second. Real lantern slides tell a story while war sirens play in the background.

I loved the old letters and post cards on display. It must of been wonderful the amount of letters wrote years ago that actually meant something.

Many of the mail Motorbikes in the 1930s were ridden by men as young as 16. During the war these bikes became known as the ‘Angels of Death’ as they had the unhappy task of delivering the news of soldiers killed on the front line.

With the arrival of Airmail in the 1920s speed was important. Bluepost boxes appeared on the streets in the 1930s which helped advertise Airmail much faster.

There is a large section where you can flick through old postal magazines and see the changes the stamps took through the decades. Up until 1965 most stamps showed the monarch, we then started to see stamps with artwork. Some of the artwork is truly stunning, my favourite being the little Robin redbreast.

As the museum progresses you start to learn about how the mail works today in the form of short films.

There is an arts and craft workshop for children that runs from 11.00-13.00 and then again from 14.00-16.00. Todays task was to try sending your own message in a bottle.

The current exhibition space is ‘Writing Home’ exploring the letters sent from people communicating with their family at home and their experiences. The Postal Museum and Railway hold many exhibitions and event so check their website for details.

Go shopping!

There is plenty of bits and pieces in the shop to tempt you, and a cafe serving coffee snacks and cakes.

The Discovery room at the Post Office Museum

The Discovery room holds all of the Hub for all of the museums archives. Researchers or students can find lots of information here. Family researchers can find out about relatives who may of worked in the Royal Mail from the archival books. There is a huge electronic tablet on which you can explore the archives of photos, documents and stamps kept by the Royal Mail. The Discovery Centre is a complete learning resource centre for the public.

I hope you enjoyed my tour of The Postal Museum and Railway. For more information and to purchase tickets please see The Postal Museum and Railway website.

This visit was courtesy of The Postal Museum and Railway and is all my own personal Opinion.

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10 of Europe’s greatest escorted rail trips

“Dear Victoria,” wrote Agatha Christie, “gateway to the world beyond England. How I love your continental platform, and how I love trains anyway.” The author was an inveterate traveller across Europe , often joining her archaeologist husband, Max Mallowan, on his digs in the Middle East, and millions still identify with her sentiments.

Train travel is liberating – and not just from traffic jams and airport queues. Besides the pleasure of watching landscapes unfold, it frees the mind to wander in a way all too rare in today’s world. Passing scenes outside the window spark a reverie of thoughts, reminiscences, and conjectures. It makes you feel that the holiday has begun when you board the first train, not when you finally leave the airport.

It’s the most relaxing way to travel, especially when someone else is in charge of the planning, with the next hotel or cultural attraction already arranged in advance. Using trains as the prime means of travel to explore countries with good services has been one of the fastest-growing sectors in tourism – and it helps the planet, too.

The CEO of Great Rail Journeys, Dave Riley, says the company’s “2024 and ‘25 seasons have continued to see incredible growth across Europe and the rest of the world. Great Rail Journeys is up 35 per cent (year on year) for 2025, with our tours in India and Vietnam proving to be extremely popular. Our most popular Europe tours, including Switzerland, Italy and Scandinavia, have seen our strongest ever growth in new customers.” 

Riley is not the only one feeling optimistic. Maria Cook, general manager of Ffestiniog Travel, believes that it’s their “enthusiasm for and knowledge of railways around the world that is recognised by our travellers and why over 60 per cent of customers return to travel with us year on year”.

It’s full steam ahead, then, for escorted rail adventures. We’ve picked 10 of the best journeys across the continent, each offering a hassle-free way to see some of Europe’s most spectacular locations. Dame Agatha would have been proud indeed.

Find the perfect route

London to ajaccio, ljubljana to pristina, lisbon and porto, london to malaga, brussels to tallinn , cologne to assmannhausen, strasbourg to tiefencastel, istanbul to budapest, a grand tour.

Italy’s most iconic region is a joy to discover by train. Set off from London to Turin (with a change in Paris) for your first night, before heading to the spa town of Montecatini Terme, your base for the week. From here, a funicular can be taken to Montecatini Alto for spectacular views over the valley. 

Local trains are used to visit Tuscan cities and towns, beginning with a day in Florence for a guided tour of such architectural treasures as the Ponte Vecchio and the cathedral, whose dome by Brunelleschi is still a construction puzzle. Lucca can be explored on foot or by an easy ride along the ramparts by bike. The tour continues to Pisa for its astounding tower.

After a day wandering among the 13 towers in the medieval hill town of San Gimignano, there is a tour of the garden and cellars of Castello di Verrazzano before a dinner of local produce. Following the final day in Siena, famed for its shell-shaped piazza and cathedral with statues by Michelangelo and Donatello,  a coach takes the party back to France for a night on the Côte d’Azur before the train back to London via Paris.

Great Rail Journeys (01904 521936) offers the 10-day Highlights of Tuscany tour from £1,895pp, including all rail and coach travel, luggage transfers and nine nights’ four-star accommodation, with monthly departure dates until October 19.

The Splendour of Corsica

Eurostar and TGV are used to reach Lyon for the first night before continuing to Nice for two nights, allowing a trip inland by narrow-gauge train along the steep-sided craggy valley to Digne-les-Bains.

Corsica is reached by ferry to Bastia, the northern terminus of the island’s mountainous main line which offers views denied to all but intrepid walkers. The railway includes some spectacular engineering, including a viaduct by Gustave Eiffel across the River Vecchio and a tunnel almost 4km long before the descent to the southern terminus at Ajaccio, birthplace of Napoleon.

Nights are spent in the seaside resort of Calvi, served by a branch railway, as well as Bastia and Ajaccio, giving plenty of time to use the railway to explore the island. A coach tour takes in the picturesque Cap Corse promontory with mountains rearing out of the sea along its western shore.

The return is by ferry to the naval city of Toulon where a night is spent before moving on for a final night in Lyon and back to London via Lille.

Ffestiniog Travel (01766 512400) offers this 14-day tour from £2,975pp, including all rail and coach travel and accommodation on a B&B basis. Departs September 16.

A ride through history

Expect a fascinating lesson on Europe’s colourful past on this tour of seven countries. It begins in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, where there’s a full day of soaking up the lively, small-town atmosphere, before taking the train to the Croatian capital, Zagreb. 

After a walking tour of the city’s Austro-Hungarian architecture, the waterfalls in Plitvice National Park are the setting for a picnic lunch, before a ride south through spectacular mountain landscapes to Sarajevo, for an insight into the beginnings of the First World War and the siege of the city in the 1990s. 

You’ll also see scenic ­Mostar and the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro, before admiring the scenery between Podgorica and Belgrade. The time in the Serbian capital includes an excursion to Novi Sad, where the Petrovaradin Fortress dominates the city, and the final days are spent visiting North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, where parts of the fortress date from the 6th century. The ancient Macedonian city of Heraclea, Lake Ohrid for a boat ride, and Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, are among the highlights.

Responsible Travel (01273 823700) offers the 16-day Balkans trip from £2,899pp, including all rail and coach travel, expert guides, excursions and accommodation in local guest houses. Multiple departures until September 28 2024. Flights not included.

The best of Portugal

Starting in Lisbon, this eight-day tour begins among the narrow streets of the Portuguese capital, where old-school trams clatter up and down the city’s hills. 

Local trains will take you to the former royal summer residence of Sintra, where Lord Byron is said to have conceived Childe Harold, and also the chic fishing town of Cascais and its museum quarter.

After four nights in Lisbon, the tour heads north to Porto, with its Unesco-listed historic centre a striking contrast to the city’s spectacular modern buildings, such as Rem Koolhaas’s geometric Casa da Música. A day is also devoted to the scenic train journey through the lush Douro Valley, with a port tasting at one of its many quintas (wine estates).

Rail Discoveries (01904 734939) offers the Lisbon, Porto & Douro Valley tour from £1,299pp, including all rail and coach travel, guides and accommodation. Departures in August, September and October, available from Gatwick and regional airports.

Wine and waves

The high-speed service from the French capital to Barcelona might be the most practical way to reach Spain on a train (taking around six and a half hours), but why not follow the Atlantic coast instead? 

After taking the Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord where the tour leader will meet the train, a TGV will whisk you to Bordeaux for a tour of the historic centre and markets. It is then a leisurely ride along the coast, through the pine forests of Aquitaine and the Pyrenean foothills, across the border to San Sebastián , the gourmet capital of Spain’s Basque Country. 

Join the locals in one of the many pintxo bars, take five on the beautiful Playa de La Concha or follow in the footsteps of pilgrims on a stretch of the Camino Norte. From here, you will head south to Segovia, renowned for its storybook castle and Roman aqueduct, before a final journey to Malaga via a night in Madrid . 

Far more than a gateway to the Costa del Sol, the city is a lively cultural hub and the birthplace of Picasso, with a whole museum dedicated to the painter.  You might even want to extend your journey to Morocco; from Algeciras, it’s a short ferry crossing to Tangier, where the country’s rail network links up the coastal cities of Rabat and Casablanca, as well as the historic treasures of Fez and Marrakech.  

Explore (01252 240700;) offers the London to Bordeaux, the Basque Country and the Beach tour from £1,600pp, including all rail travel, accommodation and guides. Five departure dates until November 4. Return from Malaga not included.

A Baltic odyssey

This six-country tour begins with Eurostar to Brussels and a connection to Bremen for the first night. After two days exploring Copenhagen , a high-speed train crosses the dramatic  Øresund Bridge, featured in Scandi Noir series, to reach Stockholm. A day is spent in the Swedish capital, built over 14 islands, before a flight to Riga and its architectural delights: an historic centre with 13th-century Lutheran cathedral and Art Nouveau buildings, and such modern gems as the national library, shaped like a mountain and known as the ‘Castle of Light’.

A coach along the Gulf of Riga takes you on to the Estonian capital of Tallinn for another two nights. Its lower town is one of the best-preserved medieval districts in Europe, and the city’s vibrant cafés add to the pleasure of exploring the cobbled streets on foot. A network of hidden tunnels built under Swedish rule during the 17th century is one of the city’s more unusual attractions.

A ferry is taken to Helsinki for two days exploring the Finnish capital and archipelago: among the sights are the planned city square surrounded by the cathedral, government palace and university, a rock church hewn out of solid stone, a World Heritage Site fortress on an island and many fine Art Nouveau-influenced buildings.

Return to London is either by plane from Helsinki or by a three-day train and ferry journey, taking an overnight ferry across the Baltic Sea to Travemünde for Lübeck, coach to Hamburg and a train to Cologne for the night and back to London via Brussels.

Great Rail Journeys (01904 734152) offers the 16-day Highlights of the Baltics & Scandinavia tour from £3,195pp, including all rail, ferry, air and coach travel, luggage transfers, accommodation and most dinners. Numerous departures into 2025.

A walking break

The base hotel in the thermal town of Gréoux-les-Bains in reached from London by Eurostar and TGV. The hotel is a member of the Châteaux Demeures de Tradition and the Relais du Silence groups and prides itself on sourcing ingredients from producers within a 20km radius.

Over the next six days, guided walks ranging from 4 to 9.5 miles and mostly reached by coach explore the countryside that has inspired many painters. They take in wooded limestone plateau, ancient abbeys, botanic gardens, remote pilgrimage chapels, Roman roads, old canals and numerous picturesque villages.

An easier or harder option is offered for each day and there is a free day for relaxation or further suggested walks.

HF Holidays (020 3974 8865) offers the seven-night A Week in Provence tour from £1,999pp, including all rail and coach travel and half-board accommodation in a four-star hotel. Various departures to September 21.

River deep, mountain high

This nine-day tour encompasses two of the finest railway journeys in ­ Germany : along the Rhine and through the Harz Mountains. 

Travelling out by Eurostar and the high-speed ICE train, via a night in Cologne, this tour reaches Wernigerode, a base for four nights and the headquarters of the ­network of historic narrow-gauge ­railways. A highlight is the summit of the Brocken, which became a tourist destination after Goethe set a scene in Faust on the mountain. 

The locomotives make a thunderous ascent of the steep grad­ients – stand on one of the open-balcony coaches to take in the scent of pine resin as the line threads through forest. A journey on the Selketal line from Alexisbad to Gernrode is followed by an afternoon in Quedlinburg, a Unesco world heritage site for its 1,500 timber-­framed houses. 

The final four nights are spent in ­Assmannhausen on the Rhine with a cruise along the river. The day at leisure could be spent on a visit to a winery or exploring some of the other scenic lines in the region, such as Koblenz to ­Giessen along the River Lahn. 

Great Rail Journeys (01904 734152) offers the Harz Mountains and Rhine Gorge tour from £1,695pp, including all rail and coach travel, and all accommodation. Multiple departure dates until October 6.

Peaks and passes

The Glacier Express is one of Europe’s finest railway journeys for its stupendous scenery and the quality of the train, with its panoramic windows and audio commentary. 

A Eurostar and TGV whisk you to Strasbourg for the first night before moving on by train to the prettily sited village of Tiefencastel for six nights. 

The journeys over the next few days include the equally spectacular Bernina Express, over the highest rail crossing of the Alps at Ospizio Bernina at 2,253m (7,329ft) and the railway to the ski resort of Arosa, where there is plenty of time to explore Lake Obersee and Chur, ­Switzerland’s oldest town. 

You can also visit Bergun to see the museum telling the remarkable story behind this rare world heritage site railway or drop in at the restored art nouveau hotel, Kurhaus Bergun. On free days use the Swiss Travel Card for a 50 per cent reduction in fares. The return to ­London is via a night in Basel.

Rail Discoveries (01904 734939) offers the eight-day Glacier Express All Inclusive from £1,699, including all rail and coach travel, half-board accommodation, wine and beer and a Swiss Travel Card. Multiple departure dates until October 7.

En-suite luxury

For those who don’t fancy waddling down the corridor of a sleeper train at 2am in search of the bathroom, then the Danube Express Golden Eagle may be for you. The smart en-suite cabins accommodate a total of just 50 passengers; there are comfortable sofas in the lounge car, and meals in the restaurant car are served in a single sitting. 

And, of course, touring this way means you return to the same cabin every night rather than constantly packing and unpacking for hotels. Among the itineraries spanning 10 central and eastern European countries, Castles of Transylvania begins in Istanbul’s historic Pera Palace Hotel (ask to see the room used by Agatha Christie), with a tour of the city’s highlights.

From here, the seven-day tour includes the medieval castle in Bulgaria’s ancient capital at Veliko Tarnovo; the 19th-century Peles Castle in Sinaia, Romania, and Bran Castle in Brasov, forever linked with Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Budapest , Hungary’s timeless capital, is the final flourish.  

Golden Eagle Luxury Trains (0161 928 9410) offers the seven-day Castles of Transylvania tour from £8,895, including excursions, tips, ensuite on board and five-star pre- and post-tour accommodation. Departs May 10 and October 20. Excludes flights.

The article was first published in April 2023, and has been revised and updated.

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Money blog: 600 new skyscrapers 'on way' for London, report finds

A reader seeks help as her employer of 24 years is bringing in a new clock-in system to pay her by the minute. Read this and all the latest personal finance and consumer news in the Money blog - and share your own problem or dispute below.

Monday 13 May 2024 19:57, UK

• Gen Z would rather deliver parcels than work in restaurants, Michel Roux Jr claims
• 600 new skyscrapers on way for London, report finds
• Money Problem: My workplace is bringing in new clock-in system to pay us by the minute - is this allowed?
• Free childcare applications open for new age band

Essential reads

• How to make sure your car passes its MOT
• 'Loud budgeting': The money-saving trend that has nothing to do with giving up your daily coffee
• How to avoid a holiday data roaming charge (while still using the internet)
• Best of the Money blog - an archive

Ask a question or make a comment

Young homebuyers are being forced to gamble with their retirement prospects by taking on ultra-long mortgages, according to a former pensions minister.

Sir Steve Webb described data - supplied by the Financial Conduct Authority to the Bank of England - as "shocking".

It suggests that more than one million new mortgages have been issued over the past three years with end dates beyond the state pension age.

The ex-Liberal Democrat MP, who is now a partner at the consultancy firm LCP, voiced fears that borrowers could be forced to raid their pension savings to clear their mortgage in a worst-case scenario.

Sir Steve saw the potential for harm in any case, as longer-term mortgages deprive people of a period running up to retirement when they could be mortgage-free and boosting their pension.

What does the data say? 

• 42% of new mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2023 - or 91,394 - had terms going beyond the state pension age;
• In the final quarter of last year, people aged 30 to 39 accounted for 30,943 new mortgages lasting beyond state pension age;
• People aged 40 to 49 accounted for 32,305;
• Under-30s made up 3,676 of these mortgages;
• People aged 50 to 59 accounted for 18,854, and there were 661 who were over 70.

Mortgage rates have been rising since the end of 2021 when the Bank of England began action to tackle rising inflation.

Taking home loans with longer maturity dates tends to be more attractive when interest rates are high, as monthly repayments are lower.

You can read more on this story below...

Waitrose has become the only supermarket to receive a royal warrant from the King. 

The recognition means the company has regularly provided the royal household with products for at least five years. 

It also means it can use the King's coat of arms on packaging, as part of advertising or on any stationary it creates. 

Waitrose was first granted a royal warrant in 1928 for supplying King George V with groceries and cleaning materials.

"We are honoured and proud that His Majesty has granted us his warrant," James Bailey, executive director of Waitrose, said. 

"It means the world to all of us, and our farmers and suppliers. There couldn’t be a more powerful symbol of our commitment to service and quality, and our determination to have the highest environmental and animal welfare standards." 

Waitrose was previously granted a royal warrant by the late Queen in 2002 and the King when he was Prince of Wales in 2010.

The Queen has also granted her first royal warrants, picking seven companies, including luxury department store Fortnum & Mason and the florist that supplied her coronation flowers, Shane Connolly & Company. 

The royal nod could be bad news for customers, however, with a brand finance expert telling Sky News that having a royal warrant allows firms to charge a price premium.

David Haigh said his company's research estimated this to be "between 10% and 25%".

A royal warrant says a company or a product is luxurious, high quality and sustainable, he explained. 

He estimates the scheme is "worth billions to UK companies and… therefore it's a very high value to the UK economy".

"And one of the reasons for that is that a lot of foreign tourists and buyers have a preference for royal warrant holder products. We found that 100% of Chinese buyers would pay in excess of 10% for a royal warrant holder product."

Read more on the Queen's choices here :

Gordon Ramsay's restaurants tripled losses to £3.4m last year, as the chef warned businesses in the industry were facing a "challenging" climate. 

The chef's group spent millions opening five new restaurants in 2023, including a Lucky Cat in Manchester, a Bread Street Kitchen in Battersea Power Station and a Street Pizza in Edinburgh. 

Sales at his wide-ranging establishments rose, however, by 21% to £95.6m in the year to August, according to The Telegraph. 

"It's been a really hard-fought year, but at the same time an exciting year, and in tough times it amazes me how strong and vibrant our industry is," Ramsay told the news outlet. 

"It's challenging out there and businesses are battling to stay afloat, rising costs, rent and food costs, multiple strikes. It's a battle" 

He was optimistic, however, saying there hasn't been "so much passion and vibrancy" in the industry since he opened his first restaurant in 1998.

"We've still got something wonderful to celebrate, and I truly believe the industry has never been so exciting."

Once the UK's favourite alcoholic beverage, beer's popularity seems to be fading among the younger drinking generation... 

In fact, only 30% of people aged 18 to 24 ever drink it, according to a study commissioned by the Society of Independent Brewers. 

Instead, younger drinkers say they prefer drinking spirits, wine and cider. 

Pub visits appear to be suffering as well, with almost a quarter of the 2,000 people surveyed saying they have never visited their local. 

SIBA's 2024 Craft Beer Report paints a more positive picture for small and independent brewers, however, with more than 55% of beer consumers saying they now drink "local craft beer". 

It also found average beer production volumes among independent breweries has risen by 14% since last year - a return to pre-pandemic levels for the first time in 4 years. 

"Demand for local, independently brewed beer in the UK is strong, with independent brewers reporting production volumes up by 14%, meaning they have returned to 2019 volumes again," Andy Slee, SIBA's chief executive, said. 

But, he said, it's time for "cautious optimism" only, with the industry still plagued with a number of issues. 

"The short-term issue for small independent breweries isn't demand; it's profitability, rising costs and financial pressures such as lingering COVID debt," he said. 

"Far too many breweries are simply trying to survive rather than thrive, so while there are many positives signs highlighted in the report, for now it's cautious optimism."

Earlier this year, our Money reporter Emily Mee explored whether the UK's big night out culture was dying out. 

Nightlife experts warned we're losing one club every two days at the moment - and if we stay on this trajectory, we will have none left by 2030.

You can read more about her findings here...

A total of 583 skyscrapers are "queuing up in the pipeline" to be built across central London, a development thinktank has said. 

That is more than double the 270 built in the past decade. 

In the eastern borough of Tower Hamlets alone, 71 tall buildings were completed in that time that time, the report by New London Architecture found. 

A further 24 were in the City of London and 27 in Canary Wharf and Isle of Dogs. 

The report said the rapid change has been fuelled by a "burgeoning demand" for office and residential space, overseas investment and a supporting planning environment. 

"Tall buildings have changed the face of London substantially over the last 20 years and will continue to do so - the pipeline that NLA has tracked means there is at least 10 years' supply that has already been defined," Peter Murray, the organisation's co-founder, said. 

"London's population continues to grow, passing the 10 million mark at the end of this decade.

"We'll still need tall buildings; and NLA will continue to keep a close watch on what's going on." 

Restaurants might only be able to open three or four days a week due to staffing problems, Michel Roux Jr has warned. 

Speaking to The Telegraph as he gears up to open his new restaurant Chez Rouz, the Michelin starred chef admitted the industry needs to change to accommodate flexible working hours. 

"Just because I worked 80 hours a week or more doesn't mean the next generation should," he said. 

"Quite the contrary. That is something that we have to address in our industry."

But, he warned that the move will come at a cost... 

"It will mean ultimately that going out is going to be more expensive, and that maybe your favourite restaurant is no longer open seven days a week - it's only open three or four days a week," he said. 

The industry is known for its long, unsociable working hours, and Roux Jr explained that the real issue hit after the pandemic, with people no longer wanting to work weekends. 

"People don't want to work unsociable hours and would rather work delivering parcels as and when they want to. It's as simple as that," he added. 

Earlier this year, Roux Jr said goodbye to his famous restaurant Le Gavroche in London. 

It had been opened by his father Albert Roux and uncle Michel Roux in 1967. 

Now, he said it's "brave" to open a new restaurant, with the market "very, very tough". 

"I really feel for anyone that is brave enough to open up a restaurant now. It's incredibly difficult," he added. 

Chez Rouz at The Langham in Marylebone, central London, is due to open on 22 May. 

By James Sillars , business news reporter

A pause for breath on the FTSE 100 after a 3% gain over the course of past week that took the index to a fresh record closing high.

The rally of recent weeks - significant for London's standing and pension pots alike - has been broad based and reflects several factors.

A major driver has been sterling's weakness versus the US dollar.

The US currency has been strong as the Federal Reserve, its central bank, has hinted it will be some time yet before it begins to cut interest rates.

Language out of the Bank of England last week sparked a flurry of bets that UK rates could be cut as early as next month.

A weaker pound boosts dollar-earning constituents on the FTSE 100 because they get more for their money when dollars are converted to pounds.

Also at play is the view that UK stocks represent good value, as they are cheaper compared to many of their international peers.

A few moments ago, the FTSE 100 was trading 6 points lower at 8,423.

A major talking point is the possibility of the Chinese fast fashion firm Shein listing in London.

According to Reuters, the company has shifted its focus to the UK after receiving a lukewarm reception in the United States.

The news agency, citing two sources, reported that Shein was stepping up its preparations for an initial public offering in London that would be expected to be one of the biggest carried out globally this year.

By Emily Mee , Money team

No one likes the date in their calendar when their MOT rolls around. 

But to make things a little less stressful, consumer expert Scott Dixon - known as The Complaints Resolver - has given us some tips on what to look out for to help your vehicle pass with flying colours. 

Some of the most common failures are faulty steering, brakes, suspension, worn or damaged tyres, cracked windscreens and faulty lights. 

Mr Dixon recommends you get your car serviced a couple of weeks before your MOT, in case there are any complex or costly issues. 

This will give you time to get them fixed and get your car through first time without any advisories. 

Aside from taking your car for a service, there are also some easy checks you can run yourself... 

Listen for unusual clunks while you're driving - this could be a sign of a damaged suspension. 

You could also check by pushing the car down on each corner. It should return to normal without bouncing a few times. 

Another option is to look with a torch under the wheel arch, as this should reveal any obvious defects. 

Blown bulbs are a common MOT failure, but they're cheap to fix. 

Walk around your car and check all the bulbs are working - this includes the headlights, sidelights, brake lights, indicators and the number plate bulb.

Mr Dixon says it's "not an easy job" to change the lightbulbs yourself on most modern cars, as the MOT will also check the positioning of the light. Therefore he recommends getting this done professionally. 

Squealing or grinding noises may be a sign your brake pads need replacing. 

You should also check whether your car stops in a straight line, or whether it pulls in different directions. 

Don't forget about the handbrake, too. Test it out on a slope and see if it securely holds the car. If it doesn't, you should get it adjusted. 

It's easy to check if your wipers work okay, but you should also make sure to inspect the blades for tears and rips. 

They should be able to clean the windows with no smears. 

Mr Dixon says you don't need to pay Halfords to change your wiper blade as you can "do it yourself in seconds". All you need to do is look for a YouTube tutorial. 

He also recommends buying the Bosch wiper blades, as he says these are good quality and will also be a sign you've looked after your car well when you come to sell it. 

One thing to look out for is tread depth. You can do this by looking for the "wear bar" that sits between the tread. 

If it's close to 1.6mm and is low, you should get the tyre replaced so it's not flagged as an advisory. 

Also check for perished tyre walls, which can happen when a vehicle is standing for any length of time. 

Uneven tyre wear is another potential issue, and if there are signs of this you should get the tyre replaced and tracking and suspension checked. 

These must be in good condition and working order, with no tears or knots. 

Registration plates

Your number plates should be clean and visible with a working light bulb at the rear. You may need to give them a wipe and replace the bulb if necessary. 

This should be in good condition, without damage such as loose bumpers or sharp edges. 

Mr Dixon advises against using automatic car washes during your car's lifetime, saying they "wreck your car". 

"It's not just your paintwork but they can also damage the wiper blades and the bodywork," he says. 

Check for warning lights

You'll need to take your vehicle to a trusted garage or mechanic for this. 

Exhaust emissions

Some diesel vehicles can fail their MOTs based on emissions. To avoid this, you can buy a fuel treatment pack and take your car for a good run to clear the fuel lines and tank.

Driving for at least 30 to 50 minutes at a sustained speed on a motorway or A-road should help to clear the filter. 

You should make sure the driver's view of the road isn't obstructed, so check for stone chips at eye level and remove any obstructions such as air fresheners and mobile phone cradles. 

What else should you think about? 

Make sure your car is clean beforehand, as a tester can refuse to do your MOT if the vehicle is filthy and full of rubbish. 

Giving your car a clean can also give you a chance to inspect it, Mr Dixon says. 

Another thing to do is to check last year's MOT for any advisories that might crop up this time. 

These potential issues will still be there - so it's best not to ignore them. 

You can check your vehicle's MOT history using  https://car-check.co.uk . 

Every Monday we get an expert to answer your money problems or consumer disputes. Find out how to submit yours at the bottom of this post. Today's question is...

I have worked at a bank for 24 years - the facilities are outsourced. This new company is bringing in a system where the staff have to click in and out and are then paid by the minute? Is this allowed? Amber

Ian Jones, director and principal solicitor at Spencer Shaw Solicitors, has picked this one up...

Your rights depend on your contract and what it says about payment. Does it specify an annual salary, or payment by time? Does it allow for changes to how payment is calculated?

If the contract does not allow for this type of payment, your employer may be trying to vary the contract of employment unlawfully.

If you're directly employed by the bank, and your pay arrangements are changing because of a new monitoring system, this would be an internal contract variation. If you work in the facilities department and the new contractor is taking over as your employer, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) 2006 may apply. 

In this case, your current terms, conditions and previous service will transfer to the new employer.

TUPE may make the issue sound more complicated but, in practice, either way the changes will be valid only if the employee agrees to them.

If you have not agreed to the change, then this could be a breach of contract. This could give rise to a successful claim in the civil courts or the employment tribunal. 

If the breach is serious (for example, you're paid less than agreed in the original contract) and you resign in response, this could amount to constructive dismissal for which a claim can be made in the employment tribunal. 

It would be sensible to get the contract reviewed by a solicitor for advice. But act swiftly - if you continue working for the employer, you are effectively waiving the breach and accepting the change to your contract.

To make it possible to pay by the minute, employees may be monitored while at work. When collecting and processing data and using it to make a decision, the employer must comply with data protection laws. If not, the employee could be entitled to compensation, depending on the breach, or the employer could be at risk of a sanction by the regulator the Information Commissioner's Office.

This feature is not intended as financial advice - the aim is to give an overview of the things you should think about.  Submit your dilemma or consumer dispute via:

• The form above - make sure you leave a phone number or email address
• Email [email protected] with the subject line "Money blog"
• WhatsApp us  here .

Please make sure you leave your contact details as we cannot follow up consumer disputes without them.

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