51–60 of 134 posts
While 200 containers is not much compared to a container ship it is sufficient to carry all of the material for a Combat Brigade :-) More seriously though, it seems like an awesome rail trip if you can convince them to pull your private rail car.
You can already travel from China to London (or more likely in reverse) by train with a few changes, it's definitely worthwhile.
I would guess that this is rolling out just for the PR, the sheer number of trains needed to replace one decent sized container ship just makes this all prohibitive to ever replace much sea freight plus launching when there is a glut of container ships floating around as well, which is keeping the price lower than most ship owners can breakeven. Ok so it's quicker, but it's not that quick. The only winners would be t…
Everyone is forgetting another option. Say your factory is relying on parts delivered to you by containers. One week there's heavy storms somewhere in Asia and your containers from China aren't loaded. Currently the only option is to either always keep a buffer of parts or to gamble and use airfreight in case needed. With such a rail option you'll have an alternative: by default use container vessel then in case of a…
That wouldn't make the rail system a sustainable business because it would only make money when there are problems with sea freight. To be sustainable it needs regular bookings. That's likely to be high value goods where timely and reliable delivery are important.
Also bear in mind these goods are shipped directly to cities anywhere in Europe. For some goods Madrid might be a better hub than any sea port and it's is nowhere near the sea, so sea freight would still need to be transferred to rail or road to get there. That's not such an issue for London, but it's a factor for many of these routes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem will be to get everyone to agree on a plan. The EU and China could probably do so (here's where having the EU is actually an advantage), but getting Belarus, Russia and Mongolia to agree to the same plan without at least one state trying to blackmail favourable terms out of it will be very hard to achieve. A proper, dedicated track could probably bring huge economic benefits for everyone involved, but I d…
I'm pretty sure most Of The route already is double tracked.
China, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France uses the standard gauge of 1,435mm but Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan has 1520mm. I guess they are shifting wagons at the borders of China and Kazakhstan and Belarus and Poland. Or are the wagons mixed-gauge?
It has been reported that, for example, when containers are shipped by a "direct train" from China to Europe, it is only containers, and not the railcars, which move from China's railway network to that of Kazakhstan. At the border station at Khorgos, two trains (the Chinese standard-gauge one and the Kazakh Russian-gauge one) would stand side by side at parallel tracks, while the cranes would move the containers from one train to the other in as short time as 47 minutes.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break-of-gauge#Containerisatio...
A break of gauge needs to be crossed when entering Mongolia from China (or Russia directly from China, if traveling via Manzhouli/Zabaykalsk), and then another one when leaving Belarus for Poland.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can already travel from China to London (or more likely in reverse) by train with a few changes, it's definitely worthwhile.
Interesting. How do you go about buying tickets for such trips?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can already travel from China to London (or more likely in reverse) by train with a few changes, it's definitely worthwhile.
Interesting. How do you go about buying tickets for such trips?
China, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France uses the standard gauge of 1,435mm but Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan has 1520mm. I guess they are shifting wagons at the borders of China and Kazakhstan and Belarus and Poland. Or are the wagons mixed-gauge?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone is forgetting another option. Say your factory is relying on parts delivered to you by containers. One week there's heavy storms somewhere in Asia and your containers from China aren't loaded. Currently the only option is to either always keep a buffer of parts or to gamble and use airfreight in case needed. With such a rail option you'll have an alternative: by default use container vessel then in case of a…
>With such a rail option you'll have an alternative: by default use container vessel then in case of a problem switch to the rail. That wouldn't make the rail system a sustainable business because it would only make money when there are problems with sea freight. To be sustainable it needs regular bookings. That's likely to be high value goods where timely and reliable delivery are important. Also bear in mind these…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can already travel from China to London (or more likely in reverse) by train with a few changes, it's definitely worthwhile.
Interesting. How do you go about buying tickets for such trips?
I've travelled by rail through Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. It's not always easy to buy (cheap) tickets online or in advance outside of Russia but it's worth taking the risk and buying in-country for the experience of the 3 + day journeys
I would guess that this is rolling out just for the PR, the sheer number of trains needed to replace one decent sized container ship just makes this all prohibitive to ever replace much sea freight plus launching when there is a glut of container ships floating around as well, which is keeping the price lower than most ship owners can breakeven. Ok so it's quicker, but it's not that quick. The only winners would be t…
For anyone looking for a quick answer, this is from the 4th paragraph in the article: While the train can carry about 200 containers, versus 20,000 on a large cargo vessel, the trip takes about half as long as a 30-day sailing between East Asia and northern Europe. That will make rail a competitive option when maritime shipments are held up or miss the booked departure, especially compared with airfreight, which cost…