band, and light blue and grey flashes. The light blue and grey flashes represent a set of stylised eagle's wings. The sector had maintenance depots at Crewe, Bristol Barton Hill, Cambridge and Euston Downside. Rolling stock was also maintained by other sectors at Heaton and Liverpool Edge Hill. Amongst the more unusual duties that fell under RES' umbrella, was its responsibility for the haulage of the Royal Train whenever required. Seeking to rejuvenate rail mail, RES devised a £150 million strategy that focused on long-distance services that worked in conjunction with a central hub based in London at its heart, known as Railnet. During late 1993, RES and RM had signed a 13-year deal with RES to operate the trains from this new hub, also referred to as the London Distribution Centre or the Princess Royal Distribution Centre, at Stonebridge Park, near Wembley. Furthermore, RM commissioned ABB to manufacture 16 four-car British Rail Class 325 electric multiple units, which were designed exclusively for the transport of mail. During RES's existence, there were numerous operational changes made in the use of Britain's railways in regards to the delivery of both mail and parcels. Throughout the 1990s, many smaller services were cut back, and mail services were removed from most passenger stations. Following the opening of the new London hub on 30 September 1996, British rail mail operations were drastically restructured, only dedicated mail trains were operated after this date and thus were no longer based at any main line stations, as it had been decided to centrally base all London mail trains at the hub instead. Accordingly, the final mail train services departed King's Cross, Euston, Liverpool Street and Paddington stations on 27 September 1996. In place of passenger stations, these services were directly to a number of mail hubs at strategic locations; these were: Shieldmuir (Motherwell), Low Fell (Gateshead), Warrington, Doncaster, Bristol Parkway, Tonbridge and Wembley PRDC (London) as well as dedicated platforms at Stafford. The restructuring of services, intended to enable the faster delivery of mail to distant destinations, necessitated the streamlining of both mail pick-ups and drop-offs, a policy which resulted in many intermediate locations seeing the permanently withdrawn of coverage by RES services. Instead, mail was to be transported by road to the 45 stations that would be served by the remaining mail trains. Despite this, the increasing efficiency of mechanical sorting in comparison to the hand