In Canada and the United States, a railway post office , commonly abbreviated as RPO , was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service and used specifically for staff to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. The RPO was staffed by highly trained Railway Mail Service postal clerks, and was off-limits to the passengers on the train .
102-455: From the middle of the 19th century, many American railroads earned substantial revenues through contracts with the U.S. Post Office Department (USPOD) to carry mail aboard high-speed passenger trains. The Railway Mail Service enforced various standardized designs on RPOs. A number of railway companies maintained nominally unprofitable passenger routes, having found that their financial losses from moving people were more than offset by transporting
204-431: A dining car or restaurant car to allow passengers to have a meal during the course of their journey. Trains travelling overnight may also have sleeping cars . Currently, much of travel on these distances of over 500 miles (800 km) is done by air in many countries but in others long-distance travel by rail is a popular or the only cheap way to travel long distances. One notable and growing long-distance train category
306-469: A 1914 Mail RPO, that is classed as a "combine" car, having sections for the RPO, Railway Express Agency and twenty seats for paying passengers. Currently, it is the only Railway Post Office car known to be operational and currently certified for operation on commercial rail. The Osceola and St Croix Valley Railway (division of MTM/reporting mark MNTX) operates the car as part of its tour line, actually "catching
408-516: A June 2018 governmental reorganization plan, the Donald Trump administration proposed turning USPS into "a private postal operator" which could save costs through measures like delivering mail fewer days per week, or delivering to central locations instead of door to door. There was strong bipartisan opposition to the idea in Congress. In April 2020, Congress approved a $ 10 billion loan from
510-943: A board member its new parent, XPO Logistics , whose postal contracts expanded during DeJoy's postmaster general role—was a major donor and fundraiser for the Republican Party (from 2017, a deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee , until appointed postmaster general, and later million-dollar donor to the 2020 Trump campaign while postmaster general). DeJoy immediately began taking measures to reduce costs, such as banning overtime and extra trips to deliver mail. While DeJoy admitted that these measures were causing delays in mail delivery , he said they would eventually improve service. More than 600 high-speed mail sorting machines were scheduled to be dismantled and removed from postal facilities, raising concerns that mailed ballots for
612-604: A buffer force of at least 400,000 pounds. This requirement was doubled to 800,000 pounds in a 1938 revision of the standards. The requirements were again strengthened in 1945 with specifications that precluded the use of aluminium for framing and major structural components. The 1945 revisions also included a requirement for end posts to prevent telescoping in the event of a collision. Railway car manufacturers adopted these requirements and carried them through to all other models of passenger cars that they built. The 800,000-lb buffer load and end post requirements were later adopted by
714-708: A clerk scoring only 96% accuracy would likely receive a warning from the Railway Mail Service division superintendent. Interurban and Streetcar systems were also known to operate RPOs. The Boston Elevated Railway car was noted for making circuits of the city to pick up mail. In the United States, RPO cars (also known as mail cars or postal cars) were equipped and staffed to handle most back-end postal processing functions. First class mail, magazines and newspapers were all sorted, cancelled when necessary, and dispatched to post offices in towns along
816-420: A converted route agent's car on runs between Chicago and Clinton, Iowa. RPO car interiors, which at first consisted of solid wood furniture and fixtures, were soon redesigned to support their new purpose. In 1879, an RMS employee named Charles R. Harrison developed a new set of fixtures that soon gained widespread use. Harrison's design consisted of hinged, cast-iron fixtures that could be unfolded and set up in
918-454: A device ( U.S. patent 61,584 ) was awarded to L. F. Ward of Elyria, Ohio, on January 29, 1867. This was about a year after apparatus for picking up and setting down mailbags without stopping was installed for equivalent UK TPOs at Slough and Maidenhead, having first been patented in UK in 1838 by Nathaniel Worsdell. With the train often operating at 70 mph or more, a postal clerk would have
1020-572: A fixed schedule and have priority over freight trains . Passenger trains may be made up of a number of passenger cars hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be made up of self-propelled railcars . Car design and the general safety of passenger trains have dramatically evolved over time, making travel by rail remarkably safe. Some passenger trains, both long-distance and short-distance, use bi-level (double-decker) cars to carry more passengers per train. Passenger trains hauled by locomotives are more expensive to operate than multiple units, but have
1122-633: A high number of packages, and an electric delivery vehicle produced in partnership with Canoo that is a "pod-like" smaller van. The Department of Defense and the USPS jointly operate a postal system to deliver mail for the military ; this is known as the Army Post Office (for Army and Air Force postal facilities) and the Fleet Post Office (for Navy , Marine Corps , and Coast Guard postal facilities). In fiscal year 2022,
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#17327810202311224-602: A higher passenger capacity. Many prestigious passenger train services have been bestowed a special name , some of which have become famous in literature and fiction. The first occasion on which a railway locomotive pulled a train carrying passengers was in the United Kingdom in 1804, at Penydarren Ironworks in Wales , when 70 employees of the ironworks were transported 9 miles by an engine designed by Richard Trevithick . The first passenger train in regular service
1326-504: A local post office, with the cancel giving the train number, endpoint cities of the RPO route, the date, and RMS Railway Mail Service or PTS Postal Transportation Service between the killer bars . Collecting such cancellations is a pastime of many philatelists and postal history researchers. The Railway Mail Service organization within the Post Office Department existed between 1864 and September 30, 1948. It
1428-428: A mail slot on the side of the car, so that mail could actually be deposited in the car, much like using the corner mail box, while the train was stopped at a station. Those desiring the fastest delivery would bring their letters to the train station for dispatch on the RPO, knowing that overnight delivery would be virtually assured. The mail handled in this manner received a cancellation just as if it had been mailed at
1530-546: A monopoly on traditional letter delivery within the U.S. and operates under a universal service obligation (USO), both of which are defined across a broad set of legal mandates, which obligate it to provide uniform price and quality across the entirety of its service area. The Post Office has exclusive access to letter boxes marked "U.S. Mail" and personal letterboxes in the U.S., but has to compete against private package delivery services, such as United Parcel Service , FedEx , and DHL . The first national postal agency in
1632-559: A number of configurations to hold mail pouches, racks and a sorting table as needed for specific routes. The fixtures were also designed so they could be folded away completely to provide a wholly open space to carry general baggage and express shipments as needed by the railroads. Harrison followed through with manufacturing his design at a factory he opened in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin in 1881. The July 1, 1862, Pacific Railroad Act signed by President Lincoln established government funding for
1734-461: A plan to close about 3,700 small post offices. Various representatives in Congress protested, and the Senate passed a bill that would have kept open all post offices farther than 10 miles (16 km) from the next office. In May 2012, the service announced it had modified its plan. Instead, rural post offices would remain open with reduced retail hours (some as little as two hours per day) unless there
1836-420: A pouch of mail ready to be dispatched as the train passed the station. In a co-ordinated movement, the catcher arm was swung out to catch the hanging mail pouch while the clerk stood in the open doorway. The mail pouch had a strap around the middle, and the strap was tightened in preparation for pickup with an approximately equivalent weight of mail in either end of the pouch to prevent the heavier end from pulling
1938-456: A separate compartment) express and baggage. Railway mail clerks were subjected to stringent training and regular testing of details regarding their handling of the mail. On a given RPO route, each clerk was expected to know not only the post offices and rail junctions along the route, but also specific local delivery details within each of the larger cities served by the route. Periodic testing demanded both accuracy and speed in sorting mail, and
2040-466: A somewhat uniform color scheme regardless of the railroad that owned or operated them. Most were painted white with trim in either buff, red or blue, which made the cars stand out from the other cars. By the 1890s, this practice had waned as railroads painted their RPO cars to match the rest of their passenger equipment. One RPO car that was displayed at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago
2142-555: A state-by-state analysis concluded that 76% of Americans were eligible to vote by mail in 2020, a record number. The analysis predicted that 80 million ballots could be cast by mail in 2020 – more than double the number in 2016. The Postal Service sent letters to 46 states in July 2020, warning that the service might not be able to meet each state's deadlines for requesting and casting last-minute absentee ballots. The House of Representatives voted to include an emergency grant of $ 25 billion to
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#17327810202312244-1114: A train consisting of a single passenger car (carriage, coach) with a driver's cab at one or both ends. Some railways, e.g. the Great Western Railway , used the term " railmotor ". If the railcar is able to pull a full train, it is more likely to be called a " motor coach " or a "motor car". The term "railcar" is sometimes also used as an alternative name for the small types of multiple unit that consist of more than one coach. Rapid transit trains are trains that operate in urban areas on exclusive rights-of-way in that pedestrians and road vehicles may not access them. Light rails are electrically powered urban passenger trains that run along an exclusive rights-of-way at ground level, raised structures, tunnels, or in streets. Light rail systems generally use lighter equipment that operate at slower speeds to allow for more flexibility in integrating systems into urban environments. Trams (also known as streetcars in North America) are
2346-411: A type of passenger train that runs a tramway track on or alongside public urban streets, often including segments of right-of-way for passengers and vehicles. Heritage trains are often operated by volunteers, often railfans , as a tourist attraction or as a museum railway. Usually, the trains are formed from historic vehicles retired from national commercial operation that have retained or assumed
2448-415: Is distinguished from the 1862 operation because mail was sorted to and received from each post office along the route, as well as major post offices beyond the route's end-points. George B. Armstrong, assistant postmaster at Chicago, originally came up with the idea of having mail processed and distributed while the mail was on board, en route in mail cars. With the assistance of Schuyler Colfax , Speaker of
2550-655: Is high-speed rail, which generally runs at speeds above 200 km/h (120 mph) and often operates on a dedicated track that is surveyed and prepared to accommodate high speeds. The first successful example of a high-speed passenger rail system was Japan's Shinkansen , colloquially known as the "bullet train", which commenced operation in October 1964. Other examples include Italy's LeFrecce , France's TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse, literally "high speed train"), Germany's ICE (Inter-City Express), and Spain's AVE (Alta Velocidad Española). In most cases, high-speed rail travel
2652-413: Is now being delivered in two days instead of one. Large commercial mailers can still have first-class mail delivered overnight if delivered directly to a processing center in the early morning, though as of 2014 this represented only 11% of first-class mail. Unsorted first-class mail will continue to be delivered anywhere in the contiguous United States within three days. In July 2011, the USPS announced
2754-429: Is one of the last known examples of the early white color scheme. As the development of passenger cars progressed, so too did the development of RPO cars. The first plans for RPO car designs were based on light baggage car frames and bodies, which sometimes resulted in catastrophe for RMS employees when the trains were involved in accidents. From 1900 to 1906 some 70 workers were killed in train wrecks while on duty in
2856-497: Is projected to raise approximately $ 50 million per year. (Shipping alcoholic beverages is currently illegal under 18 U.S.C. § 1716 (f).) In 2014, the Postal Service was requesting reforms to workers' compensation, moving from a pension to defined contribution retirement savings plan, and paying senior retiree health care costs out of Medicare funds, as is done for private-sector workers. As part of
2958-465: Is the peak period for the Postal Service, representing a total volume of 11.7 billion packages and pieces of mail during this time in 2022. The USPS operates one of the largest civilian vehicle fleets in the world, with over 235,000 vehicles as of 2024, the majority of which are the distinctive and unique Chevrolet / Grumman LLV (long-life vehicle), and the similar, newer Ford-Utilimaster FFV ( flexible-fuel vehicle ), originally also referred to as
3060-440: Is time- and cost-competitive with air travel when distances do not exceed 500 to 600 km (310 to 370 mi), as airport check-in and boarding procedures can add at least two hours to the overall transit time. Also, rail operating costs over these distances may be lower when the amount of jet fuel consumed by an airliner during takeoff and climbout is taken into consideration. Air travel becomes more cost-competitive as
3162-516: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in either 1834 or 1835. The United States Congress officially designated all railroads as official postal routes on July 7, 1838. Similar services were introduced on Canadian railroads in 1859. The railway post office was introduced in the United States on July 28, 1862, using converted baggage cars on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad (which also delivered
Railway post office - Misplaced Pages Continue
3264-503: The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 forgave the previous $ 10 billion loan. Voting by mail has become an increasingly common practice in the United States, with 25% of voters nationwide mailing their ballots in 2016 and 2018. The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 was predicted to cause a large increase in mail voting because of the possible danger of congregating at polling places. For the 2020 election,
3366-784: The Environmental Protection Agency and an environmental lawsuit, and also due to availability of new funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 . The Act included $ 3 billion for electric USPS vehicles, supporting the initiative by Postmaster General DeJoy and the Biden Administration to add 66,000 electric vehicles to the fleet by 2028. The electric fleet will be composed of 9,250 EVs manufactured by Ford ; 11,750 commercial off-the-shelf EVs; and 45,000 Oshkosh Next Generation Delivery Vehicles . In February 2023,
3468-551: The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) for all passenger MU locomotives as of April 1, 1956. They were extended to all passenger cars and locomotives in 1999 by the USDOT . An interesting feature of most RPO cars was a hook that could be used to snatch a leather or canvas pouch of outgoing mail hanging on a track-side mail crane at smaller towns where the train did not stop. The first US patent for such
3570-624: The National Rural Letter Carriers' Association (NRLCA) was contacted for its input on the USPS's current study of the effect of five-day delivery along with developing an implementation plan for a five-day service plan. A team of Postal Service headquarters executives and staff was given a time frame of sixty days to complete the study. The current concept examines the effect of five-day delivery with no business or collections on Saturday, with Post Offices with current Saturday hours remaining open. On Thursday, April 15, 2010,
3672-472: The November 3 election might not reach election offices on time. Mail collection boxes were removed from the streets in many cities; after photos of boxes being removed were spread on social media, a postal service spokesman said they were being moved to higher traffic areas but that the removals would stop until after the election. The inspector general for the postal service opened an investigation into
3774-718: The Post Office , U.S. Mail , or simply the Postal Service , is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States, its insular areas and associated states . It is one of a few government agencies explicitly authorized by the Constitution of the United States . As of 2023, the USPS has 525,469 career employees and 114,623 non-career employees. The USPS has
3876-658: The United States began in the 1830s and became popular in the 1850s and '60s. The first electric passenger train was exhibited at the Berlin Industrial Exposition 1879 . The first successful commercial electric passenger train, the Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway , ran a year later in Lichterfelde . Long-distance trains travel between many cities or regions of a country, and sometimes cross several countries. They often have
3978-414: The $ 30 billion delivery budget; door-to-door city delivery costs annually on average $ 353 per stop, curbside $ 224, and cluster box $ 160 (and for rural delivery, $ 278, $ 176, and $ 126, respectively). S.1486, also with the support of Postmaster General Donahoe, would also allow the USPS to ship alcohol in compliance with state law, from manufacturers to recipients with ID to show they are over 21. This
4080-509: The 2010s. In 2012, in order to be able to meet obligations for payroll and continuing its operations, the Postal Service defaulted on payments due for retirements benefits in August and again in September that year. In September 2014, it defaulted on the payments for the fourth time, and continued to default into 2017. The Postal Service sought financial reforms from Congress for relief from
4182-510: The American Postal Workers Union's arguments that these counters should be staffed by postal employees who earn far more and have "a generous package of health and retirement benefits". On January 28, 2009, Postmaster General John E. Potter testified before the Senate that, if the Postal Service could not readjust its payment toward the contractually funding earned employee retiree health benefits, as mandated by
Railway post office - Misplaced Pages Continue
4284-490: The American continent. By the 1880s, railway post office routes were operating on the vast majority of passenger trains in the United States. A complex network of interconnected routes allowed mail to be transported and delivered in a remarkably short time. As many as a dozen clerks might work in a single RPO car, although fewer would be required if part of the car was used for transport of previously sorted mail or (often in
4386-744: The CRV (carrier route vehicle). The LLVs were built from 1987 to 1994 and lack air conditioning, airbags, anti-lock brakes, and space for the large modern volume of e-commerce packages, the Grumman fleet ended its expected 24-year lifespan in fiscal year 2017. The LLV replacement process began in 2015, and after numerous delays, a $ 6 billion contract was awarded in February 2021 to Oshkosh Defense to finalize design and produce 165,000 vehicles over 10 years. The Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV), will have both gasoline and battery electric versions. Half of
4488-588: The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing to examine the status of the Postal Service and recent reports on short and long-term strategies for the financial viability and stability of the USPS entitled "Continuing to Deliver: An Examination of the Postal Service's Current Financial Crisis and its Future Viability". At which, PMG Potter testified that by 2020, the USPS cumulative losses could exceed $ 238 billion, and that mail volume could drop 15 percent from 2009. In February 2013,
4590-610: The House and the Senate; President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on April 6, 2022. Congress has limited rate increases for First-Class Mail to the cost of inflation, unless approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission . A three-cent surcharge above inflation increased the 1 oz (28 g) rate to 49¢ in January 2014, but this was approved by the commission for two years only. As of July 14th, 2024
4692-480: The House at the time, and A. N. Zevely , Third Assistant Postmaster General, Armstrong was authorized to test his ideas. In 1869, the Railway Mail Service (RMS), headed by George B. Armstrong , was officially inaugurated to handle the transportation and sorting of mail aboard trains. Armstrong was promoted from a supervisory position in the Chicago post office following his experiments in 1864 with
4794-479: The November election. He said he would reinstate overtime hours, roll back service reductions, and halt the removal of mail-sorting machines and collection boxes. However, 95 percent of the mail sorting machines that were planned for removal had already been removed, and according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , DeJoy said he has no intention of replacing them or the mail collection boxes. On December 27, 2020,
4896-449: The POD began experimenting with a highway version of the RPO to serve the same purposes along routes where passenger train service was not available. These highway post office (HPO) vehicles were initially intended to supplement RPO service, but in the 1950s and 1960s, HPOs often replaced railway post office cars after passenger train service was discontinued. The last interurban RPO service
4998-544: The POD cancelled all "mail by rail" contracts, electing to move all first class mail via air and other classes by road (truck) transport. This announcement had a devastating effect on passenger train revenues; the Santa Fe, for example, lost $ 35 million (US) in annual business, and led directly to the ending of many passenger rail routes. After 113 years of railway post office operation, the last surviving railway post office running on rails between New York and Washington, D.C.
5100-676: The Post Office Department, during the Cold War, to redesign stamps to include more patriotic slogans. On March 18, 1970, postal workers in New York City—upset over low wages and poor working conditions, and emboldened by the Civil Rights Movement— organized a strike . The strike initially involved postal workers in only New York City, but it eventually gained support of over 210,000 postal workers across
5202-486: The Postal Accountability & Enhancement Act of 2006, the USPS would be forced to consider cutting delivery to five days per week during June, July, and August. H.R. 22, addressing this issue, passed the House of Representatives and Senate and was signed into law on September 30, 2009. However, Postmaster General Potter continued to advance plans to eliminate Saturday mail delivery. On June 10, 2009,
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#17327810202315304-645: The Postal Service announced its purchase of the Ford EVs as well as 14,000 electric vehicle charging stations. The fleet electrification plan is part of the Postal Service's initiative to reduce carbon emissions from fuel and electricity 40 percent and emissions from contracted services 20 percent by 2030. In August 2024, the USPS deployed the first new vehicles from its fleet modernization project at its Topeka Sorting and Delivery Center in Kansas, including: an electric vehicle with higher clearance for routes delivering
5406-557: The Postal Service contribution to the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). Most other employees that contribute to the CSRS have 7% deducted from their wages. Currently, all new employees contribute into Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) once they become a full-time regular employees. Running low on cash, in order to continue operations unaffected and continue to meet payroll, the USPS defaulted for
5508-480: The Postal Service had $ 78.81 billion in revenue and expenses of $ 79.74 billion. Due to one-time appropriations authorized by the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 , the agency reported a net income of $ 56.04 billion. In the 2023 fiscal, revenue had increased to $ 79.32 billion, but reported a net loss of $ 6.48 billion. In 2016, the USPS had its fifth straight annual operating loss, in
5610-533: The Postal Service to offer some non-mail services. As of 2023, the Postal Service operates 33,641 Post Office and contract locations in the U.S., and delivered a total of 127.3 billion packages and pieces of mail to 164.9 million delivery points in fiscal year 2022. USPS delivers mail and packages Monday through Saturday as required by the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 ; on Sundays only Priority Express and packages for Amazon.com are delivered. The USPS delivers packages on Sundays in most major cities. During
5712-491: The RPOs, leading to demands for stronger steel cars. The RMS developed its first standards for car design in 1891 to address some of these issues. In 1912, the Railway Mail Service developed a set of strength requirements for new cars in an effort to push the car building companies into using steel for the cars' major structural components and underframes. The core of the requirements was that each car should be able to withstand
5814-577: The Treasury to the post office. According to The Washington Post , officials under Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggested using the loan as leverage to give the Treasury Department more influence on USPS operations, including making them raise their charges for package deliveries, a change long sought by President Trump. In May 2020, in a controversial move, the Board of Governors of
5916-486: The U.S. Postal Service, and took effect on July 1, 1971. Among the changes from the Postal Reorganization Act, a key aspect was the requirement for the USPS to be self-financing, which introduced a conflict with its other requirement to provide a nationwide service. The next major legislation affecting the service, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, was passed in 2006. This act limited
6018-900: The US, known as the United States Post Office was founded by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia on July 26, 1775, at the beginning of the American Revolution . Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general ; he also served a similar position for the American colonies. The Post Office Department was created in 1792 with the passage of the Postal Service Act . The appointment of local postmasters
6120-586: The USPS announced that in order to save about $ 2 billion per year, Saturday delivery service would be discontinued except for packages, mail-order medicines, Priority Mail, Express Mail, and mail delivered to Post Office boxes, beginning August 10, 2013. However, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 , passed in March, reversed the cuts to Saturday delivery. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA) obligated
6222-778: The USPS deliver approximately 380 million home test kits from January 2022 through May 2022. As of March 2024, when the program concluded, the USPS had delivered over 1.8 billion free COVID-19 test kits. In September 2024, the distribution of free at-home COVID-19 tests was re-started. Passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self propelled passenger trains are known as multiple units or railcars . Passenger trains stop at stations or depots , where passengers may board and disembark. In most cases, passenger trains operate on
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#17327810202316324-402: The USPS operated 673 facilities. ) As of May 2012, the plan was to start the first round of consolidation in summer 2012, pause from September to December, and begin a second round in February 2014; 80% of first-class mail would still be delivered overnight through the end of 2013. New delivery standards were issued in January 2015, and the majority of single-piece (not presorted) first-class mail
6426-526: The USPS to fund the present value of earned retirement obligations (essentially past promises which have not yet come due) within a ten-year time span. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is the main bureaucratic organization responsible for the human resources aspect of many federal agencies and their employees. The PAEA created the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund (PSRHB) after Congress removed
6528-496: The United States Postal Service appointed Louis DeJoy , the first postmaster general in the last two decades who did not emerge from the postal bureaucracy. Instead he had three decades of experience in the private delivery sector where he created a new national corporation with 80,000 employees. DeJoy—until 2014 CEO of New Breed Logistics (a controversial Postal Service contractor), and until 2018
6630-727: The United States, following which it will operate in regular service as part of the Museum operations out of Osceola, WI. Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, PA has RPO car #1100, Louisville & Nashville, on display. It is an all- steel car built in 1914 by the American Car and Foundry Company . The Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad operates a post office car and all mail posted there gets an official USPS OC&T postmark. United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service ( USPS ), also known as
6732-494: The amount of $ 5.6 billion, of which $ 5.8 billion was the accrual of unpaid mandatory retiree health payments. First-class mail volume peaked in 2001 to 103.65 billion declining to 52.62 billion by 2020 due to the increasing use of email and the World Wide Web for correspondence and business transactions. Private courier services, such as FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS), directly compete with USPS for
6834-559: The cars are kept in operational condition. In 1933, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad rebuilt one of its baggage cars into a replica of the first RPOs that were used on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad in 1862. The railroad displayed the car in several cities along the railroad; it now resides at the Patee House Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri . The Minnesota Transportation Museum (MTM) maintains Northern Pacific #1102,
6936-399: The character, appearance, and operating practices of railways in their time. Sometimes lines that operate in isolation also provide transport facilities for local people. Much of the equipment used on these trains' systems is original or at least aims to replicate both the look and the operating practices of historic/former railways companies. Passenger rail is one of the modes of travel with
7038-483: The clerks see the addresses on the mail they sorted, first by improving the reflectors in the 1880s, then calling for discontinuance of oil lamps in the 1890s and the first experiments with electric lighting in 1912. Clerks' safety was also of great concern to the RMS, with the first comprehensive statistics on work-related injuries published in 1877. Through the second half of the 19th century, most RPO cars were painted in
7140-633: The construction of a railroad from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean in order to open a main line mail route across the western frontier. The act was officially entitled "AN ACT to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes". The Act authorized government-funded railroad mail routes across
7242-810: The conventional rail infrastructure to support trains that can operate safely at higher speeds. Many cities and their surrounding areas are served by commuter trains (also known as suburban trains), which serve commuters who live outside of the city they work in, or vice versa. More specifically, in the United States commuter rail service is defined as, "short-haul rail passenger transportation in metropolitan and suburban areas usually having reduced fare, multiple ride, and commuter tickets and morning and evening peak period operations". Trains are very efficient for transporting large numbers of people at once, compared to road transport. While automobiles may be delayed by traffic congestion , trains operate on dedicated rights-of-way which allow them to bypass such congestion. With
7344-485: The cost of postage increased to 73 cents for first class mail. Comprehensive reform packages considered in the 113th Congress include S.1486 and H.R.2748. These include the efficiency measure, supported by Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe of ending door-to-door delivery of mail for some or most of the 35 million addresses that currently receive it, replacing that with either curbside boxes or nearby "cluster boxes". This would save $ 4.5 billion per year out of
7446-461: The delivery of packages. Lower volume means lower revenues to support the fixed commitment to deliver to every address once a day, six days a week. According to an official report on November 15, 2012, the U.S. Postal Service lost $ 15.9 billion its 2012 fiscal year. In response, the USPS has increased productivity each year from 2000 to 2007, through increased automation, route re-optimization, and facility consolidation. Despite these efforts,
7548-410: The easiest access to roadside mailboxes. Some rural letter carriers use personal vehicles. All contractors use personal vehicles. Standard postal-owned vehicles do not have license plates . These vehicles are identified by a seven-digit number displayed on the front and rear. Starting in 2026, all delivery truck purchases are scheduled to be electric vehicles , partly in response to criticism from
7650-554: The first letter to the Pony Express ). Purpose-built Railway Post Office (RPO) cars entered service on this line a few weeks after the service was initiated. They were used by staff to separate mail for connection with a westbound stagecoach departing soon after the train's arrival at St. Joseph. This service lasted approximately one year. The first permanent Railway Post Office route was established on August 28, 1864, between Chicago, Illinois , and Clinton, Iowa . This service
7752-412: The first time on a $ 5.5 billion retirement benefits payment due August 1, 2012, and a $ 5.6 billion payment due September 30, 2012. On September 30, 2014, the USPS failed to make a $ 5.7 billion payment on this debt, the fourth such default. In 2017, the USPS defaulted on some of the last lump-sum payments required by the 2006 law, though other payments were also still required. Proposals to cancel
7854-401: The four weeks preceding Christmas since 2013, packages from all mail classes and senders were delivered on Sunday in some areas. Parcels are also delivered on holidays, with the exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas. The USPS started delivering Priority Mail Express packages on Christmas Day in select locations for an additional fee. The holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas
7956-595: The funding obligation and debt from the defaults. Legislation was introduced in Congress in 2016 as well as in 2019, aiming to remove the benefits funding obligations, however no new legislation was passed until the 2022 Postal Service Reform Act (PSRA). The PSRA was signed into law in April 2022. It forgave $ 57 billion in Postal Service debt and released it from the obligation to set aside funds for future retirees' healthcare, as well as adding requirements for delivery timing and reporting on performance metrics, and allowing
8058-418: The funding obligation and plan a new schedule for the debt were introduced in Congress as early as 2016. A 2019 bill entitled the "USPS Fairness Act", which would have eliminated the pension funding obligation, passed the House but did not proceed further. As of March 8, 2022, the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 , which includes a section entitled "USPS Fairness Act" cancelling the obligation, has passed both
8160-411: The furthest points of the journey. This practice allows less populous communities to be served in the most cost-effective way, at the expense of a longer journey time for those wishing to travel to the terminus station. Higher-speed rail services operate at top speeds that are higher than conventional inter-city trains but below high-speed rail services. These services are provided after improvements to
8262-441: The initial 50,000 vehicles will be electric, as will all vehicles purchased after 2026. The number of gallons of fuel used in 2009 was 444 million, at a cost of US$ 1.1 billion . For every penny increase in the national average price of gasoline, the USPS spends an extra US$ 8 million per year to fuel its fleet. The fleet is notable in that many of its vehicles are right-hand drive , an arrangement intended to give drivers
8364-530: The introduction of the Railways (Conveyance of Mails) Act 1838 . In the United States, some references suggest that the first shipment of mail carried on a train (sorted at the endpoints and carried in a bag on the train with other baggage) occurred in 1831 on the South Carolina Rail Road . Other sources state that the first official contract to regularly carry mail on a train was made with
8466-428: The lighter end off the catcher arm. As the inbound pouch slammed into the catcher arm, the clerk kicked the outbound mail pouch out of the car, making certain to kick it far enough that it was not sucked back under the train. Outbound pouches of first class mail were sealed with a locked strap for security. Larger sacks with optional provisions for locking were used for newspapers, magazines, and parcel post. An employee of
8568-755: The local post office would retrieve the pouches and sacks and deliver them to the post office. In the 1950s the Budd Company offered two versions of its self-propelled diesel RDC with RPO: the RDC-3 combine and the RDC-4 (a baggage/mail/express only unit). These models were purchased by the New York Central , Boston & Maine , New Haven Railroad , Rock Island , Pacific Great Eastern , Northern Pacific , Canadian Pacific Railway , Canadian National and Minneapolis & St. Louis . Most RPO cars had
8670-594: The mail on such passenger routes. The world's first official carriage of mail by rail was by the United Kingdom's General Post Office in November 1830, using adapted railway carriages on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway . Sorting of mail en-route first occurred in the United Kingdom with the introduction of the travelling post office in 1838 on the Grand Junction Railway , following
8772-570: The mail on the fly" as a part of its regular runs. As part of the 40th anniversary of the end of RPO service, Minnesota Transportation Museum will be placing #1102 on display at Saint Paul Union Depot as part of its "Last Mail Train" for National Train Day, 6 May 2017. At the end of the day, Great Northern 400 , Northern Pacific Railway RPO #1102 and two coaches will be departing Union Depot as Train #1 bound for Osceola, Wisconsin. It will be hauling commemorative envelopes and cards to be sent all across
8874-572: The majority of this service consisted of one or more cars at the head end of passenger trains, many railways operated solid mail trains between major cities; these solid mail trains would often carry 300 tons of mail daily. After 1948, the railway post office network began its decline although it remained the principal intercity mail transportation and distribution function within the Post Office Department (POD). There were 794 RPO lines operating over 161,000 miles of railroad in that year. Only 262 RPO routes were still operating by January 1, 1962. In 1942,
8976-498: The nation. While the strike ended without any concessions from the federal government, it did ultimately allow for postal worker unions and the government to negotiate a contract which gave the unions most of what they wanted, as well as the signing of the Postal Reorganization Act by President Richard Nixon on August 12, 1970. The act replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with a new federal agency,
9078-410: The organization saw an $ 8.5 billion budget shortfall in 2010, and was losing money at a rate of about $ 3 billion per quarter in 2011. On December 5, 2011, the USPS announced it would close more than half of its mail processing centers, eliminate 28,000 jobs and reduce overnight delivery of First-Class Mail. This will close down 252 of its 461 processing centers. (At peak mail volume in 2006,
9180-620: The post office to facilitate the predicted flood of mail ballots, but the bill never reached the Senate floor for a vote. A March 2021 report from the Postal Service's inspector general found that the vast majority of mail-in ballots and registration materials in the 2020 election were delivered to the relevant authorities on time. The Postal Service handled approximately 135 million pieces of election-related mail between September 1 and November 3, delivering 97.9% of ballots from voters to election officials within three days, and 99.89% of ballots within seven days. Postmaster General DeJoy helped
9282-402: The recent changes. On August 16 the House of Representatives was called back from its summer recess to consider a bill rolling back all of the changes. On August 18, 2020, after days of heavy criticism and the day after lawsuits against the Postal Service and DeJoy personally were filed in federal court by several individuals, DeJoy announced that he would roll back all the changes until after
9384-428: The route. Registered mail was also handled. The foreman in charge was required to carry a regulation pistol while on duty to discourage theft of the mail. Because of the physical and mental demands placed on RPO clerks, the Railway Mail Service pushed the adoption of standardized floor plans and fixtures for all RPO cars, with the first plans published in 1885. The RMS also pressed for improved lighting fixtures to help
9486-522: The same trackage (though not simultaneously), as well as producing a more comfortable ride for passengers. "Inter-city" is a general term for any rail service that uses trains with limited stops to provide fast long-distance travel. Inter-city services can be divided into three major groups: The distinction between the three types of inter-city rail service may be unclear; trains can run as InterCity services between major cities, then revert to an express (or even regional) train service to reach communities at
9588-430: The services that the Postal Service could offer to only those it already provided and also established a requirement for the USPS to save money for the medical benefits of future retirees. The Act set a goal to save $ 5 billion per year for the first 10 years of a 50-year schedule, however within 6 years the Postal Service began to default on its payments. The Postal Service experienced lower revenues as mail use declined in
9690-729: The travel distance increases because the fuel accounts for less of the overall operating cost of the airliner. Some high-speed rail systems employ tilting technology to improve stability in curves. Examples of tilting trains are the Advanced Passenger Train (APT), the Pendolino , the N700 Series Shinkansen , Amtrak 's Acela and the Spanish Talgo . Tilting is a dynamic form of superelevation , allowing both low- and high-speed traffic to use
9792-399: The use of bilevel cars , which are tall enough to have two levels of seating, commuter rail services can haul as many as 150 commuters per train car, and over 1,000 per train: much more than the capacity of automobiles and buses. In British and Australian usage, a "railcar" is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term is usually used in reference to
9894-684: Was a community preference for a different option. In a survey of rural customers, 54% preferred the new plan of retaining rural post offices with reduced hours, 20% preferred the "Village Post Office" replacement (where a nearby private retail store would provide basic mail services with expanded hours), 15% preferred merger with another Post Office, and 11% preferred expanded rural delivery services. In 2012, USPS reported that approximately 40% of postal revenue comes from online purchases or private retail partners including Walmart , Staples , Office Depot , Walgreens , Sam's Club , Costco , and grocery stores. The National Labor Relations Board agreed to hear
9996-675: Was a horse drawn train on the Swansea and Mumbles Railway which opened in 1807. In 1808, Trevithick ran a passenger-carrying exhibition train called Catch Me Who Can on a small loop of track in London. The exhibition, which ran for two weeks, charged passengers for rides. The first steam train carrying passengers on a public railway was hauled by Locomotion No. 1 on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825 , traveling at speeds up to 15 miles per hour. Travel by passenger trains in
10098-605: Was a major venue for delivering patronage jobs to the party that controlled the White House. Newspaper editors often were named. It was elevated to a cabinet-level department in 1872, and was transformed by the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 into the U.S. Postal Service as an independent agency. Since the early 1980s, many direct tax subsidies to the USPS (with the exception of subsidies for costs associated with disabled and overseas voters) have been reduced or eliminated. The United States Information Agency (USIA) helped
10200-516: Was discontinued on June 30, 1977. The last route with a railway post office title was actually a boat run that lasted a year longer. This boat railway post office was the Lake Winnipesaukee RPO operating between The Weirs, New Hampshire , and Bear Island on Lake Winnipesaukee . The final date it operated with a postmark was September 30, 1978. Many RPO cars have been preserved in railroad museums across North America; some of
10302-413: Was operated by Pacific Electric Railway on its route between Los Angeles and San Bernardino, California . When the post office made a controversial policy change to process mail in large regional "sectional centers," mail was now sorted by large machines, not by people, and the remaining railway post office routes, along with all highway post office routes, were phased out of service. In September 1967
10404-642: Was renamed the Postal Transportation Service on October 1, 1948, and existed until 1960. After 1960, the management of railway post office routes as well as Highway Post Office routes, Air Mail Facility , terminal railway post offices , and transfer offices , were shifted to the Bureau of Transportation . At their height, RPO cars were used on over 9,000 train routes covering more than 200,000 route miles in North America. While
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