DB Schenker's trains to carry 1m letters a day for Royal Mail

Royal Mail will today sign a contract with the rail freight company DB Schenker to move more than a million items of mail every day. Britain's biggest rail freight haulier – known as the English, Welsh & Scottish Railway until it was bought by the German state rail operator Deutsche Bahn in 2007 – has agreed to run seven mail trains a day between London, Warrington and Glasgow and more if demand is sufficient.

The DB Schenker deal marks the latest expansion of Royal Mail's use of the rail network to move post around the country. The operator phased out its own mail trains in 2004 but returned to the network in 2005 and has been delivering more and more letters and parcels in this way ever since. Tony Fox, the logistics director, said: "Royal Mail uses a fully-integrated network of air, rail and road to carry mail. DB Schenker will perform a central role in this network, delivering mail trains from London to Scotland."