Mail Rail lets tourists visit London’s secret postal railway
London’s newest tourist attraction is perfect for underground explorers. It’s not ideal for the claustrophobic.
A visit to Mail Rail , a subterranean train network that once carried millions of letters a day across the city, involves a cramped journey on a very small train through dark tunnels 70 feet (21 metres) belowground. It’s atmospheric, but confined.
“If you’re really tall, you may want to think twice before you buy a ticket,” Harry Huskisson, head of communications for Mail Rail and the related Postal Museum , said during a press preview this week.
For 75 years, Mail Rail was the subterranean circulatory system of Britain’s postal system. Trains transported letters, telegrams and packages between rail stations and sorting depots at speeds impossible on London’s traffic-clogged streets.