Mail Rail to open its doors to the public in July

The long-awaited opening of Mail Rail - the underground London Post Office railway - is set for July. Tickets for the new Postal Museum, incorporating a ride through the Mail Rail tunnels at Mount Pleasant, are expected to be on sale in May.

Five interactive zones will lead visitors through five centuries of postal and communications history at the Postal Museum in Clerkenwell (on Phoenix Place), giving visitors a whole new perspective on historical events.

Visitors will then head over the road to descend into the old engineering depot of the 90-year-old Post Office Railway at Mount Pleasant, to board bespoke trains on a 2ft-gauge railway under London. The trains, built by Severn Lamb in Stratford-upon-Avon, are battery-operated and will carry about 15-16 passengers at a time.

The railway was opened in 1927, but following its closure in 2003 it has been mothballed ever since.