U.S. Postal Service studies intermodal expansion

Well, this proves, “What goes around, comes around.” Now bring back the mail sorters to sort the mail along to take care of the mail. I’m sure that the old timers can show the new people how it’s done.

Mail returning to rail.
In 1958 you could put a first class letter in the mailbox at 7 pm at the Pennsy station in Massillon, Ohio and the letter would be picked up at 7:30 pm by Train #22, the Manhattan Limited, east bound from Chicago and arrive 500 miles away in New York City in 12 hours and be delivered that afternoon. Post office made two deliveries a day back then.

Back then Train #22 would consist of ABA locomotives and six mail cars, a RPO car, six to eight sealed Railway Express Agency cars, two working REA cars with agents, one baggage car, four coachs, one diner and one Pullman. Round trip Massillon to NYC was $40 in coach. I always rode free with my dad on his REA pass. Since we were nonpaying and if their were no seats available, we had to sit in the aisle on our suitcases or in the men’s lounge.

The coaches were usually pre WW II and looked it: rough riding, noisy, and either hot or cold depending on the season.
Ah, but the crew and the African-American stewards were impeccable in their uniforms.
And #22 was usually only 20-30 minutes late arriving in NYC.

What about you, Canada Post?

The USPS used to use intermodal all the time. Conrail ran MAil 8 and Mail 9 among other trains that haule dmail. In recent years they shifted to using more over the road trucks.

To JAMES A HELLAMSfrom OKLAHOMA, Unforunately this wouldn’t be true today as roughly 80 to 90% of the mail is automated. Only the non machinable mail is hand sorted. As an example, when I started working at my station about 25 plus years ago, we had about 31 routes. Now factoring in the mail volume loss the past few years (add a few routes) we are now down to 20 routes with more addresses to deliver to.

I certainly hope the USPS does use the intermodal system as I think it would be more timely not to mention cheaper!

This is extremely good news.

I have long held that when the Postal Service left the rails; it was the biggest mistake they made for the following reasons.

First, when the Postal Service left the rails, it left the most energy efficient mode of transportation it could ever have. This resulted in its having to pay a needless fortune in fuel expenses. No wonder, they are having so much financial difficulty.

Second, by leaving the rails (particularly the RPO cars), it left the most efficient means of getting the mail dispatched to its destinations. When the mail was on the RPO cars, the mail could be sorted, dispatched; and made ready for delivery to the various towns and cities WHILE IN TRANSIT! With the use of the airliners and trucks, the mail has to be put in pods that are placed in the trucks and airliners for shipping. When the pods arrived, the mail was taken off the trucks and airliners, sorted, dispatched; and put back on board the trucks and airliners for further dispatching. This process was repeated over and over until the mail reached its destinations. With the shipment by RPO cars, the mail could be sorted and dispatched WHILE IN MOTION! This greatly enhanced the efficiency of processing the mail for delivery.

Thanks Thomas B. Minetree Jr. of the mail trains. When I was a youngster, growing up in the Northeast, I saw alot of mail-baggage cars from the LIRR, PRR, NHRR, etc. The transit agencies would have to either modify or order new mail cars. This could be done as a joint partnership with the Post Office and the railroads. As for Mr. Guse, if you are so anti Amtrak and trains in general. Then, why oh why do you read and write in Trains??? You sound like Rush!!!

Amtrak??? Amtrak is never mentioned in the article. How about following UPS’s successful lead by putting USPS highway trailers, owned or contract, on rail cars for max flexibility? Or leased containers? I sometimes travel on Amtrak, but I’d want my mail to move on a hot freight rail intermodal train, thanks.

In the UK we lost our RPOs five years ago, but mail is again travelling on rail even for the short distances in the UK, for runs of 200-300 miles.

I would have thought that there are advantages for USPS to explore, and surprised that they do not evaluate modal shift as part of regular business planning, especially as there are some well etablished long distance intermodal Z trains. This clearly has UPS and FedEx convinced.

Whether or not the intermodal routes reflect postal traffic, there will be some that do, so I look forward to USPS trailers or containers on some long distance routings, and even some attached to Amtrak trains too!

Glad to see that people at USPS are working from the neck-up. Dan, where were you a few years back ? It was tried with AMTRAK and it didn’t work, and I think I remember why.
They and USPS provide a service to the customers, and it’s most important that each is on schedule and fast as possible to their customers. They have different customers , so it would never work with them together .
Think about it ! How many cities are on the main line of a Class one railroad with intermodal service compared to cities serviced by AMTRAK . It’s not even close ! UPS has known this for years !
Besides, the railroads are required by the stockholders to be profitable,where as AMTRAK has never been able to claim it. GO FOR IT USPS, GREAT IDEA !!

My father saz’s that after working in the Post Office for 46 years, the biggest savings could be to get rid of supervision! Every employee, clerk and carrier know their jobs, they don’t need some malcontent standing over them barking like a little dog… Anyway that is what he says… They maintain a “secret shopper service” but really don’t like the results, so they send Managers to other offices to try and entrap window service personnel for not asking stupid questions about the package being mailed, like a criminal is going to tell the truth. Most honest customers get to hate the repeating of the security questions anyway. TSA at your local Post Office, NOT!

A look at the commuter railroads in addition to Amtrak to carry the mails…Amtrak interfaces with most at stations up and down the East and West coast as well as the mid-West…A new look at an old idea, passenger trains carring mail,express and LCL. A new company could be formed, owership Amtrak , the Railroads and a Trucking company or two. Intermodal yes containerize most definitely,for profit ABSOLUTELY.

Nice to see the USPS is looking to suceed even though Congress doesn’t want it to with their $5.5 billion payment per year mandate to fund future retirees who have not even been born yet which accounts for over 90% of their losses. No other private company or gov’t agency has to do this.

Probably already some mail moving in those UPS trailers from the west coast to Chicago and beyond. This would be Parcel Select which UPS then delivers to local Post Offices and Processing Centers for final delivery. Also from shippers in the East for shipment to the west from Chicago.

As mentioned, LIRR used to have mail carried on its tracks. Some postal facilities had sidings and loading facilities, most if not all of which are now paved over, but my guess is that some could be restored. Same thing for UPS and maybe Fedex; some sites are on or near Long Island rail lines. Shifting to rail could get a lot of trucks off local roads and out of traffic jams and cut costs substantially.

It would also help Long Island if the Port Authority of NY and NJ would finally get to its original mandate of creating a freight rail tunnel from NJ to NYC / Long Island.