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" Spare trams ‘should be used as late-night couriers for parcels’ "

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  1. chdot
    Admin

  2. custard
    Member

    sounds impractical TBH
    only companies on the routes?
    do they come to the tram or do they deliver to the people?
    who are they delivering to in the evening?

    Posted 13 years ago #
  3. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Volkswagen use a pair of trams - the CarGoTram - to move parts from their logistics centre to their factory in Dresden.

    British Rail "Red Star Parcels" used to use a similar concept, moving priority parcels and letters on passenger trains. Local agents would then complete the "last mile" run from the station to the destination. For whatever reason, BR fell out with these agents and the service declined and was later sold on, eventually ending up with UPS, but using trains has long since ceased.

    Nicely back OT, the lockable parcel lockers that BR specified on many of its new-build passenger units in the 1980s for Red Star traffic is one of the reasons that there was space available to install very generous cycle racks in the ends of the trains (think the old North Berwick trains, or West Highland line).

    Posted 13 years ago #
  4. custard
    Member

    as a kid,I seem to recall buses having a parcel service

    Posted 13 years ago #
  5. Arellcat
    Moderator

    I recall with Laid Back cramming four recumbent bikes into the last West Highland train of the day. Yesterday I happened to be looking at the photos we took at the time, and the luggage area was huge, if a little tortuous to access.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  6. crowriver
    Member

    No idea if this service still exists, but I was in Warsaw about 10 years ago, and had been delayed arriving. I had to get a small packet to another city in Poland that day, and was led by my host to the central train station. In one of the normal train carriage compartments the guard sat, surrounded by parcels. My host spoke to him through the open window, passed the packet to him with a small payment, and was issued a receipt. The person receiving the parcel simply had to get to the station in time for said train arriving, show ID, and the guard handed the packet over on the platform.

    Simple!

    Posted 13 years ago #

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