Very high winds in many parts of the UK last night, caused the cancellation of a number of air services Royal Mail use to transport mail to and from some parts of the country. In particular air services in and out of airports in Belfast, Exeter, Newcastle, Stansted, East Midlands and the Isle of Man were subject to some disruption.
As a result of the air network disruption and other weather related transport issues, there is likely to be some impact to mail travelling between the more distant parts of the country due for delivery today. Royal Mail are doing all they can to operate normal services at this time, using all available transport to move mail safely and keep delays to an absolute minimum.
28 Responses
Only a few years ago much of the long distance mail went by Train. The Mail Train hammering through the night with the mail being picked up at speed and dropping off mailbags sorted on the train was an institution. While the Mail Trains were occassionally affected by the weather they were normally able to keep to time. Then in the name of Modernisation the powers that be decided to fly the mail instead of taking it by train and ever since then the standards of the mail have fallen. Lets suggest that to improve the mail the Post Office reinstate the Mail Trains. Perhaps at the same time we could get our mail before noon and more than one delivery a day.
in the not too distant past foreign mail was only sent by sea, We dont think going backwards is a good thing
It appears to me that you believe that everything that the powers that be do is good if they attach the word ‘progress’ or perhaps ‘improvement’ to it. In some cases you may be right but I am old enough to remember the post arriving early enough in the morning for it to be dealt with in plenty of time to send out a reply or the ordered goods the same day-not as present its arrival coinciding with the last post collection. When the Train took the Strain the post was much earlier in the day and we had more than one delivery. Much from the past was far superior to todays services or should I say lack of services.
I am old enough to remember stage coaches and ugly enough to frighten the postman into delivering early lol
I always pictured you as a spotty faced youth but if you are old enough to remember Stage Coaches you should apply to the Guinness Book of Records because the oldest person registered recently died aged 114 years and you must be comfortably older than that. I am fairly ugly and I have never managed to frighten the Postman into delivering early so you probably do not need make-up for Halloween. But seriously standards today in so many ways are much lower than earlier in the 20th century. We seem to reduce standards are justify it as an “Improvement”. As an example years ago when my children were at School they told me that they had not been taught the Tables( 1 x 2 = 2 etc). So I taught them. A couple of months later their Teacher told me off because “We don’t believe in teaching them the tables anymore”. I always thought that this was the equivalent of building a house without putting the foundations in. Probably explains why the UK is declining in so many ways that our education system seems not to be interested in teaching our Children to read or write or do their sums.
I certainly think the present time is a vast improvement on the 1970s/80s. Not sure how it compares to the 1800s though.
Has garlic bread arrived yet?
1970’s and 1980’s. Now I am thinking back. In about 1972 I launched a Society which later developed into a Charity. I am very proud of that Charity and during the 1970’s I put a great deal of work into it. So yes I remember the 1970’s with a great deal of nostalgia. 1980’s I met and got married and started my family. Marriage long since over but I have 2 of the greatest children(not so much children these days) that anybody can have. So yes I am nostalgic about the 1980’s. But why stop at the 1970’s and 1980’s. I can remember the 1950’s(a bit) and the 1960’s(a lot). In those days we lived in London and our local bus route was the 629 operated by Trolleybuses. Electrically powered totally Non Polluting but they were ripped out and replaced by Highly Polluting Diesel Buses again in the name of PROGRESS. In the 1960’s we had a National Health Service where the Doctors and Nurses actually cared about the patients(unlike today see Staffordshire). We had Railways where you could normally get a seat(unlike today where the conditions are often akin to a cattle truck). Going back a bit further to the 1940’s my Mother was from a Fish and Chip Shop in Wigan and yet she went on to become a School Teacher(today such Social Mobility is much more difficult and under the Tories likely to get just about impossible). So you will forgive me when I am not convinced that everything today is better than it was in the past.
I remember the 60s well, anyone who wants to go back to those days must have an awful life now
though the 70s were not too bad from what I remember through an alchohlic haze
I don’t think I have an awful life now but we had Mainline Steam Trains until 1968 I certainly remember them. As for Trolleybuses. Electricity has to be produced somehow and yes it can cause pollution but in the City Centres and Urban Areas where the Trolleybuses operated there were no fumes. So Mrs Smith with her child when they were shopping were not continuously gassed by the fumes of diesel buses going by. Today of course we have a few reintroduced Trams(Manchester, Sheffield etc) and they are non-polluting but a Tram Network costs 4x what a compatrable Trolleybus Network would cost to build. I enjoyed the 1960’s
who gives a bugger about pollution and global warming, this earth will last me out, and It wont matter if you all fry when I have popped me clogs,
this global warming is bollocks anyhow, goverments have got to give the sheep something to worry about
I find myself agreeing(in part) with northumbrian(am I really about to agree with him???). Global Warming has happened all the way from the days when the Earth was a blazing hot ball of fire. What it really is is the Weather Pattern on Earth are continuously changing they are Dynamic. The Global Warming Freaks would have us believe that there is a “Normal” Weather or Climate and anything differant from that is all the fault of Man and his activities northumbrian put it correctly although I being a Gentleman would not use such language. But in such as City Centres where Pollution from for example a Diesel Bus is belching out into the faces anmd lungs of pedestrians such as Mrs Smith and her child are more worrying. That is why it was a disaster that Transport Planners ripped out the Trams and Trolleybuses. Had we kept them and invested in them then our City Centres and Urban Areas would be much cleaner and pleasant places to live today. Like northumbrian I only have a finite number of years to go before I am not directly interested in the planet and its future. But I like to think that it will continue to survive for millions, possibly billions of years yet and will finally end when the Sun comes to the end of its life and that Life on Planet Earth will survive until the end.
Of course our customers will understand and still give us 5* 😉
What an awesome thread – I’m reading through getting all nostalgic for the trams in Blackpool and then north’s comment about DSRs gave me my first real belly laugh of the day 🙂 Brilliant thanks for a much needed giggle!
Oh the mention of Blackpool Trams. I haven’t been that far North for years. But years ago I had to go to collect 2,000 books in Huddersfield so I went up thev day before with my son and we went on Manchester Metrolink and then onto Blackpool. Travelled end to end on both networks. Hoped the books would be delayed but unfortunately they were ready on time so no excuse for an extra day on the Trams. Blackpool Trams Public Transport with Real Class. Just to think that years ago every Town and City of any size had a Tram Network and they were all ripped out in the name of Progress. Go on the continent and see what they did with their Tram Networks. Had we had a Transport Planner who really cared about Transport we could have had dozens of Tram Networks of the same quality as exist on the Continent.
Front page of todays papers is that Bad Weather is on its way. Daily Express talks about 6 inches of snow. Just watch the chaos if this does arrive. Remember we are still only in November. Winter can go on to end of March or even longer. So Winter 2010/11 could go down in history as one of the worst a repeat of 1947 or even worse. So look out for travel chaos as the Councils run out of salt and the airports are closed yet the trains kept running in 1947(with difficulty) the post still got through in 1947 I wonder if the same will be true in 2010/11. Northumbrian mentioned post by sea(in 2) and that is true but not every development is “progress” sometimes some aspects of the past are considerably better than so called “progress” and putting the post back onto the Train would certainly be a good idea, especially in a harsh winter.