First UK rail freight service to China to depart

[Chris S]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39549077

My ebay stuff should arrive a bit quicker then

 

[psmiffy]

Is it not a bit of a con - i thought that it is only the containers that make the journey - unloaded and reloaded where the width of the line changes

 

[Drago]

And the train will make the return journey full of counterfeit versions of the items it transported on the outward journey.

 

[robjh]

You are in China buying stuff off UK traders on eBay?

That'll be Global Britain then. Maybe helped on by TM the PM's modern industrial strategy.

 

[nickyboy]

It's a start but 30 containers is miniscule compared to seafreight volumes.

Britain has, in any case, always been the laggard in doing business with China. France, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and particularly Germany have focused much more on the market opportunities there

Don't expect your ebay purchases to be coming by quicker rail (about 3 weeks v 6 to 7 weeks) any time soon. Rail is about 2.5x the price of sea shipping China to UK

 

[Chris S]

You are in China buying stuff off UK traders on eBay?

I assumed the containers wouldn't just contain assylum seekers on the return journey

 

[srw]

This is the return journey

You would have thought the word "to" in the thread title would be a hint, wouldn't you?

 

[Chris S]

This is the return journey

So why did you say "You are in China buying stuff off UK traders on eBay?"

 

[Chris S]

So you thought that the train would stay in China once it got there?

 

[srw]

So you thought that the train would stay in China once it got there?

Oh, probably. It's a publicity stunt.

 

[psmiffy]

So you thought that the train would stay in China once it got there?

As the train does not actually go to China at all it would be tricky for it to stay

In order to make the journey, a number of different locomotives and wagons were used as the railways of the former Soviet Union states have a larger rail gauge.