Mail trains are to be replaced by lorries and planes

The company said its 49 mail trains will begin to be cancelled from next month and stopped altogether from next March.

Royal Mail said the rail network had simply proved too expensive and unreliable, and in future all post would be distributed by road and air.

Fifty-five posts could be affected in Crewe and five in Stafford.

We were shocked, we were amazed, we were not expecting Royal Mail to make this announcement Allen Johnson, EWS

The Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said overall the move threatened 500 jobs, including posts at dedicated rail terminals across England, Wales and Scotland.

It also said the move could be an environmental disaster, and called on the government to intervene.

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

"We were shocked, we were amazed, we were not expecting Royal Mail to make this announcement," Allen Johnson chief operating officer of EWS told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Road and air

"We've reduced the cost of mail on rail by 20% in the last two years and we've also made significant reductions in the many offers we've made to Royal Mail.

"We've got to keep talking to them."

But Paul Bateson, Royal Mail's managing director of logistics, said there was no point continuing to negotiate.

"Quite simply the price on the table was too high.