first direct britainchina train completes run
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today
Egypt Today, egypt today
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today

First direct Britain-China train completes run

Egypt Today, egypt today

Egypt Today, egypt today First direct Britain-China train completes run

A freight train transporting containers laden with goods from London
Beijing - Arab Today

The first freight train linking China directly to the UK arrived in the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu Saturday after a 12,000-kilometer (km) trip, becoming the world’s second-longest rail route.
The journey is the latest effort in China’s drive to strengthen trade links with Western Europe along a modern-day “Silk Road” route.
The world’s top trading nation launched the “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) strategy in 2013, and has since poured millions into constructing vast infrastructure links.
The train — which was also carrying pharmaceuticals and machinery — departed London on April 10 and passed through France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan during its 20-day trip before arriving in Yiwu in eastern Zhejiang province, a major wholesale center for small consumer goods.
The new route is longer than Russia’s famous Trans-Siberian railway but about 1,000km shorter than the record-holding China-Madrid link, which opened in 2014.
London is the 15th city to be linked to a new freight network offered by the state-run China Railway Corporation (CRC), which says its services are cheaper than air transport and quicker than shipping.
The journey should be 30 days faster than moving the goods by ship, the provincial government had said, but the pilot run took two days more than the 18 days expected.
And the train named the East Wind, has much less carrying capacity — just 88 shipping containers, according to the Yiwu government, compared to the 10,000 to 20,000 containers cargo ships can carry. It is unclear how much the venture cost and some experts have questioned whether the ambitious project makes economic sense.
“It is hard to say at this stage what the economic return will be, as the economic benefits will come over a long time,” He Tianjie of Oxford Economics Hong Kong told AFP.
“However, the train is in some aspects more convenient and flexible. It can make multiple stops, allowing for the pickup and offloading of cargo along the way. Rail transport is also less affected by adverse weather conditions. Therefore, there may be a role for such long-haul rail links,” he said.
China already has a regular direct freight train service to Germany, Europe’s largest economy. One route links the Chinese megacity of Chongqing to Duisburg, a steel-making town and one of Germany’s transportation and commercial hubs.
The other route links Beijing, the Chinese capital, to Hamburg, Germany’s second-largest city.
Prime Minister Theresa May will visit China later this year, with talks likely to include closer trade ties for when Britain leaves the EU, according to British officials.
“The reality is that there is nothing new here. Transcontinental rail transit has existed for over a century,” said Theresa Fallon, director of the Centre for Russia, Europe, Asia Studies (CREAS) in Brussels.
The launch of the new rail route was a bid to show post-Brexit Britain that there were other trade options than neighboring Europe, she said.
Roughly 80 percent of global trade is shipped by sea as freight train services face technical and bureaucratic hurdles, which vary according to country.
The East Wind’s locomotive and carriages had to be changed en route because of the larger gauge on railways in the former Soviet Union.

Source: Arab News

egypttoday
egypttoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

first direct britainchina train completes run first direct britainchina train completes run



GMT 07:20 2017 Friday ,04 August

Al-Baziji calls Houthis to stop killing

GMT 05:50 2011 Thursday ,03 March

Zaha Hadid\'s Guangzhou Opera

GMT 14:13 2017 Saturday ,11 March

CHELSEA Beat SWANSEA City 3-1

GMT 08:27 2017 Thursday ,07 September

Houthi commander was killed in Saraweh Front

GMT 07:55 2018 Friday ,19 January

Turkey 'not satisfied' with US assurance

GMT 15:23 2011 Friday ,17 June

Obama\'s next crisis: a teenage daughter

GMT 15:02 2017 Tuesday ,26 September

UAE Ambassador meets with Mufti of Lebanon

GMT 18:26 2017 Tuesday ,19 December

Trump eyes major tax reform victory in Congress

GMT 11:43 2017 Saturday ,25 March

Clinton aide accuses FBI chief of double standards

GMT 13:46 2017 Saturday ,11 November

Visa-free entry for Filipinos to South Korean city

GMT 07:12 2015 Friday ,25 September

Pro-Moscow rebels order UN to leave east Ukraine

GMT 05:18 2014 Thursday ,30 January

Tong Yang Group chief to stand trial for fraud

GMT 22:06 2015 Friday ,26 June

Former Russian PM Yevgeny Primakov dies at 86

GMT 15:28 2015 Sunday ,07 June

Bahraini-American relations highlighted

GMT 03:22 2016 Monday ,18 April

Nigeria, China currency swap forces $ rate down
 
 Egypt Today Facebook,egypt today facebook  Egypt Today Twitter,egypt today twitter Egypt Today Rss,egypt today rss  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
egypttoday, Egypttoday, Egypttoday