One of the biggest revolutions in e-commerce and something that makes easy access to custom-printed cardboard boxes so essential is next-day delivery.

With such a short window to process orders and ensure they are sent to a delivery and fulfilment centre, the supply chain needs to work very quickly and efficiently to ensure that it is economically and practically viable.

This includes sourcing packaging, sourcing products and working with high-speed delivery services that typically use a model such as hub-and-spoke fulfilment.

This system involves rapid transit between central delivery hubs, whilst the last mile is typically more variable and can involve a variety of different transport options from vans to bicycles.

This was initially made possible in Great Britain thanks to the railway network, which enabled Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones to set up a mail order empire that sent goods from his warehouse in Newtown to any railway station in the UK before it was delivered from there by parcel post.

Until its return in 2024, the railway parcel post service suddenly stopped at the turn of the millennium. Why was this and what inspired its return?

The Rise Of Red Star

The creation of parcel post was very much separate from the rest of the postal network; whilst letters and very small packages were carried by Royal Mail, parcel post had become a monopoly owned by the railway network.

Because trains were much faster and safer than any other mode of transport for the better part of a century, railway operators operated their own parcel post services. 

Some of these had dedicated offices and sorting facilities, whilst others were far more of an ad-hoc agreement. On some trunk lines, dedicated parcel trains rushed across the length of the line, taking huge numbers of boxes with them.

This was formalised in 1883 thanks to an agreement between the railway companies and Postmaster General Henry Fawcett to create a unified parcel post service, essentially formalising the monopoly.

Everything began to change in 1948 when the Transport Act nationalised the Big Four railway companies (Great Western, London and North Eastern, Southern and London, Midland and Scottish) and formed British Railways.

This not only included passenger and freight transportation, but also the parcel post that the railway companies used, and following a reorganisation that would lead to British Rail, the parcel post services would be merged together.

The result was Red Star Parcels, an express parcel post service that was significantly faster than the parcel post service provided by the General Post Office. 

It was always successful, but the biggest change came when Red Star established a national hub-and-spoke system through a remarkable partnership.

Linking The Star And The City

Red Star Parcels formed a partnership with City Link, an early last-mile delivery service that introduced a national next-day and same-day delivery service that businesses and individuals could use.

City Link acted as the missing piece; whilst Red Star was very fast, there was no way to deliver the parcels from the station to the destination, which led to a reliance on a loose network of couriers.

Once City Link switched to a franchise model, this collaboration proved to be highly effective and popular with users, typically under the name Red Star Door To Door.

However, the tensions between the motives of the two companies festered, and neither would survive until the end of the millennium intact.

The Fall And Rise Of Rail Mail

The problems began with the launch of Night Star in 1982, a door-to-door parcel service operated by British Rail directly, albeit still using City Link as the facilitator.

This was seen as a betrayal by City Link, and by 1989, City Link transitioned from relying on railway trunk routes to road lorries before announcing they would stop delivering for Red Star completely.

This turned out to be a disaster for both sides; Red Star struggled to find consistent delivery partners which made it difficult to sell off as British Rail was broken up and privatised, whilst City Link nearly went bust before the start of the 1990s.

The switch to road freight significantly increased costs and overheads, which led to a cash-flow crunch and a sudden sale to Securiguard, but just as sales increased, they would be acquired in a hostile takeover by Rentokil.

Red Star was sold for a nominal sum in 1995 to the existing management, who sold the company to Lynx Express, but following restrictions to high-speed rail following the Hatfield rail crash, Red Star was closed.

This led to the gradual breakup of the existing railway parcel post network. However, following several successful trials and small startups, rail freight is making a comeback as a fast, carbon-neutral solution for delivering parcels.