ROYAL Mail surprised everyone by ending a 170-year history of distributing post by train last year.

Most regretted that a service so much a part of the fabric of these islands was going the same way as the doorstep milk delivery.

But the decision prompted far deeper feelings than mere nostalgia. There was fury that short-term strategists at the Royal Mail intended to abandon rail and add more congestion to Britain's roads.

Bosses said that it could absorb the 14 per cent of mail transported by train on the roads without extra journeys. At the very kindest interpretation, this appeared to be wishful thinking.

In reality the policy directly opposed the Government's environmental goals. One of its aims is to increase the amount of freight on Britain's railways by 80 per cent within ten years.

Just as the award-winning Potter Group in Selby was showing the way forward on rail freight, one of the best and longest-running customers was taking to the roads.

Royal Mail said the move was necessary in the name of efficiency. But what could be more efficient than a team of postal workers sorting the mail while it was on the move?

Instead we have our post unsorted and often immobile in lorries on jammed roads. No wonder deliveries are arriving later.

Today it has emerged that Royal Mail is in talks with GB Railfreight about placing a small amount of post back on the railways. This amounts to a tacit admission that its roads policy was an error.

We hope this U-turn leads to further deals and the revival of travelling post offices. Mail and rail still go together.

Updated: 10:45 Wednesday, April 14, 2004