First China-U.K. Freight Train Departs as Xi Seeks to Lift Trade

Some price estimates: (very crude, but shows magnitude of price)

Rail is 4 times more expensive than by sea. Air is at least 6 times more expensive than rail, but can be even 18 times more expensive if payload is heavy.

Cost of shipping 40′ HC container:

- by sea: $1,600

- by train: $6,800

- by air, light, so you pay for volume: 4.6 USD / kg, 40 ft got volume 67.7 m3 * 143 kg / m3 ~= 9 tons, $41,400

- by air, heavy, so you pay for real weight: 4.6 USD / kg, 40tf can be 27tons, $124,200

Shanghai <-> Gdynia, Poland: http://www.transportchiny.pl/ceny_transportu_z_chin.php

Shanghai <–> Małaszewicze, Poland http://gocargo.pl/czy-transport-koleja-z-chin-jest-oplacalny...

By Air: http://www.chinaimportal.com/blog/air-freight-import-china-g...

Container: https://www.searates.com/reference/equipment/3/

Excuse me for non-English links, but that was the easiest what I can find.

Agreed. I really can't see this being a success for anything more than PR. If you need it ASAP, you're going to use airfreight. If you don't you're going to have it by sea. I don't see much of a need for something in between those two timeframes. Anyone specialised in logistics care to comment if there is an actual market here?

If waiting for a part costs thousands a day, every day saved is a plus.

I think there are a lot of companies willing to pay extra to get it in 18 days vs 27 days.

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 costs twice as much, according to Michael White, operations director at Brunel Shipping, the U.K. booking agent for the service.

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 problem switch to the rail.

What you say is true, if we only take into consideration shipping from coastal China.

But I would presume there is geo-strategic interest for China to try and improve its internal and western regions. If we take this into consideration, it may be very efficient to directly ship via train to Europe, instead of first going several thousand km to the east, to reach China's coast.

Quick wikipedia yields this:

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.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Eurasia_Logistics

When I crossed the border on a passenger train from Poland to Belarus and from Mongolia to China, the train went into a warehouse where the compartment was lifted and new bogies slid underneath. All while the passengers remained on the train

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mjdoughty/8502710543/

Loading gauges might be a problem as well. Parts of the UK rail network are still on W6a, which means the clearance from tunnels and bridges and turns is too small to take standard containers on standard wagons: you need special low-deck wagons where the container sits down between the wheels (so there's extra space between the containers, where the rail bogies are). This isn't the most efficient way imaginable to move goods over long distances. The W10 standard (which allows the taller Hi-Cube containers for refrigerated goods and the like) is available only on a few corridors.

(Mind you, in the US, they use low-deck cars like this for about 70% of containers... the difference being that the US railways can double-stack the containers. It's a wonderful rail system.)

This, and other geopolitical implications. The 'New Silk Road' effort has been China's focus for a while, and envisions two corridors along which overland trade can flow: the status quo through Russia, and an alternate one to the south that avoids Russia and remains resilient should their partnership sour.

That was my thought add a couple of extra passenger cars and a buffet car and you would have an interesting trip and get to see some of the less travelled part of the world.

You can already travel from China to London (or more likely in reverse) by train with a few changes, it's definitely worthwhile.

Not sure about CO2 impact, but one problem is that these trains are running pretty empty back to china (china doesn't want to import so much from Europe by rail). I think they are running 50 trains a year, with a heavy subsidy to make it affordable (half the cost).

Price would also be good to know. If it is 1/100 of the price, then 100 trains could be run for every boat.

According to figures in an OECD report, rail freight has significantly higher CO2 emissions per tonne-km - 41-102g vs 30-40g.

http://www.oecd.org/trade/envtrade/2386636.pdf (p. 29)

How frequently? If this was a dedicated, two-track main line, then standing trackside I'd expect to see one train coming in each direction every 20 minutes. Of course, that depends on having massive infrastructure at each end to service those trains. To see an example of that in action in the US, head to LA, and take Amtrack or Metrolink to Fullerton station, paying attention to BNSF's facilities in LA County. Then, hang out at Fullerton for a few hours, taking note of the number (and length) of trains.

More likely, you'll see one train per day, mainly because of choke points like the Eurotunnel. It's also likely that cargo will have to be moved around at least once, since rolling stock (train cars, etc.) aren't normally certified for high-speed running. Plus, you've got a mix of at least high-voltage AC (for Eurotunnel) and diesel, so there would be engine changes. Plus, many USSR countries aren't on "standard gauge", so you either need rolling stock with wheel sets of different gauges (widths), or you need to move cargo at specific transfer points.

Why drum up business for a dictator led authoritarian government that suppresses its own people and other countries and pollutes the environment?

The article says 18 days and 12000 km.

That's just ~28 km/h on average. I ride my bicycle faster than that :).

I can't find anywhere that mentions the frequency of the service, but I think it's safe to assume they don't wait for a container to do a complete round trip before the next shipment leaves.

Google tells me that Germany has seven freight train services a week going to/from China.

http://tbngroup.de/en/internation-forwarding-logistics-from-...