ROYAL Mail train services to and from York are to end in January, the company confirmed today.

It has announced it is to stop transporting post by rail, in an effort to save £90 million a year.

York does not have a dedicated mail terminal, but post is regularly picked up from the city when a travelling post office runs between Newcastle and London and Newcastle and Bristol.

Mail has been ferried by rail for 170 years, but Royal Mail chiefs say the service is expensive and unreliable.

The company has revealed that cancellations of its 49 mail trains will begin next month, with the service phased out altogether in March.

The decision follows the breakdown of two years of negotiations between Royal Mail and the freight carrier English Welsh and Scottish Railways (EWS).

In future, post across the United Kingdom will be moved by rail and by air. The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) said that the move threatened 500 jobs.

A Royal Mail spokesman today said that there would be no effect on York jobs as a result of the announcement.

He said: "The travelling post office service is due to end in January. There will be no impact on York and no loss of jobs."

EWS said it was "shocked" at the announcement and pledged to continue pressing the benefits of rail to the Royal Mail, warning that the shift would add 160,000 lorry journeys a year to Britain's "beleaguered" roads.

Bob Crow, RMT general secretary, said Royal Mail's decision was "a scandal". "This move threatens 500 jobs, it threatens the environment, it threatens the whole idea of next-day postal deliveries and it threatens to cost the taxpayer a fortune." he said.

"This is a cost-cutting step too far and if the Government has any self-respect left they will step in to stop it."

Royal Mail forecast it would make annual savings of £90 million, partly through the opening of a new £40 million distribution centre in the Midlands later this year, adding that road vehicles would be used more efficiently. Royal Mail said last year it planned to stop using rail for the distribution of first class letters because of poor reliability, but would continue using it for second class and other less time-critical items.

About 14 per cent of the country's daily postbag of 82 million items of mail is transported by rail - a total of more than ten million items.

Paul Bateson, Royal Mail's managing director, logistics, said: "There is a marked difference between the price we believe we should be paying for rail services and that which was on the table. Quite simply, other forms of transport can give us the same benefits, in terms of flexibility and quality, but at a lower cost.

EWS agreed with the union that 500 jobs were at risk, including posts at dedicated rail terminals including Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Carlisle, Crewe, Doncaster, London, Motherwell, Newcastle, Norwich, Peterborough, Plymouth, Rugby, Stafford, Swansea and Warrington.

Mail trains have been running since 1830 and one was famously robbed in 1963 during the Great Train Robbery when £2.5 million was stolen.

The famous 1936 documentary film Night Mail dealt with the operation of the mail train over the course of one day and night.

The film was based around the poem by York-born writer WH Auden featuring the lines: "Here comes the night train, crossing the border. Bringing the cheque and the postal order."

Updated: 10:31 Friday, June 06, 2003