Also, a “drop in the ocean” compared to the number of parcels being delivered in London. I’ll bet it never gets beyond a short trial, like every other recent attempt...
There is indeed a big UPS hub at London Gateway, near Stanford le Hope. I suspect that might be the main user though I believe there are some other internet fulfillment-type operations in the port's logistics park.
I expect it could. However, they are Royal Mail assets, I believe, and would need their agreement to spend money (and, for this application, an agreement for a competitor to use them).
Agreed, but remember that they are also designed to be loco-hauled so they do have a bit more flexibility than being 'just' EMUs. Granted, whether anyone wants to faff attaching/detaching locos is a different issue.
They'd have to do something about the Postal Museum operation at Mount Pleasant for a start. (It offers a short ride over a portion of the route. I can recommend it.)
I expect it was designed for vast quantities of letters and very few parcels, at a time when people sent letters around London expecting them to be delivered in the next post, whereas nowadays it’s mostly parcels that Royal Mail’s competitors are handling.
The redevelopment of former mail and parcel handling facilities is a major physical obstical in bringing parcel traffic back to the railway in any volumes. I haven't looked at the station layout by the taxi road for a couple of decades and don't know how easy it would be to transfer parcels there. The degree of double handling required at the Stanford-le-Hope end would be a significant factor as well.
