Slashdot Mirror
UK Company Wants To Deliver Parcels Through Underground Tunnels
Zothecula writes Drones flown by Amazon aren't the only way we could be getting our parcels delivered in the near future. UK firm Mole Solutions is exploring the possibility of using small robot trains running on underground tracks to manage deliveries, and it's just received funding from the British government to help test the viability of the proposal.
Nice to see the government using its vast size to actually take a holistic view and consider all factors for once.
But no, instead they decided it was cheaper to dump a bunch of extra traffic on an area notorious for congestion to save money. Brilliant!
I don't even remember which government and I can't be arsed to lookit up becuse it makes no difference. Both the major parties are as dumb as each other.
I know you're trying to take a swipe a government for this, but please remember that the Royal Mail has been operated as a private organisation for a long time now (even if it's only relatively recently that the government actually sold off the shares), so it wasn't a "government" decision to close thse mail tunnels; it was a private commercial decision. And frankly, as a commercial decision, it was a no-brainer -- those rail tunnels can't be cheap to operate. They also mean that you can't easily relocate your sorting offices if you wanted to.
And I have to say, the most relevant line on Wikipedia is this:
"Royal Mail had earlier stated that using the railway was five times more expensive than using road transport for the same task. The Communication Workers Union claimed the actual figure was closer to three times more expensive but argued that this was the result of a deliberate policy of running the railway down and using it at only one-third of its capacity"
If even the unions are saying it's three times more expensive, there's a problem.
And, to be honest, I really don't want my post subject to both postal AND train-driver strikes, thanks very much. They already have had several months off for the past few years just by striking over pay while they earn more than I can ever hope to earn.
The beauty of Amazon was that they hired random people to deliver Amazon parcels in their cars late at night and thus avoided the whole Post Office "We tried to deliver your parcel at 9am but, strangely, you weren't home.... you can collect it from the post office 20 miles from you or your workplace at any time between 9-5 Mon-Fri".
Pneumatic post anyone?
Everything will work fine until something, like an explosion, happens. Then the system will suffer from post-pneumatic stress syndrome.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .