This post will probably be the first part of a series of post related
to the gigantic Chinese project “One road, one Belt”
In this first entry we will focus in the first string of the project
the new rail routes.
Until not too long ago the only two options available to transport
Chinese products to Europe were take an ocean bound route, which
although cheap can be very slow, or use an air carrier that is
considerably faster, but also much more expensive.
A third way was unlocked when the Chinese government launched a rail
freight service between China and Western Europe.
This line will connect Beijing and London, making it the first direct
rail link between the two cities.
The freight will span 7456 miles (12000 km) of railways crossing
Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium, France and the
UK.
The route is actually not new at all, it´s part o the old Silk Road,
which commenced more than 2000 years ago, through which Chinese silk
caravans carried wears to Europe and Africa. Now Beijing is aiming to
resurrect this historic trade route by using rail power.
This new plan is part of Chinese president Xi Jinping´s project to
improve the country´s trade links and revive the ancient Silk Road
route.
This new route also comes at a particularly well time for the UK,
with the government of Theresa May currently sourcing the world for
trade deals in anticipation of a departure from the EU.
The first cargo carrying 4 million worth of goods arrived in London
on the 8th of January after an eighteen day journey that was as much
an engineering challenge as a logistical problem with different types
of rail track in different countries meaning the same train can´t
travel the whole route and so the containers have to be removed and
reloaded onto different carriages at several stages of the journey.
