New Silk Route

[Terpe]

'China freight train' in first trip to Barking

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38497997

[stevewool]

Be good if they ever took passengers

[Terpe]

Be good if they ever took passengers

I found this report so interesting.
As you may know, I'd been involved in developing Railway technology all over the world then discovered this amazing story.

It's like 'science-fiction' in a way.
You could travel by car, motorbike, bicycle, boat or by train, or any combination, from your local train station to almost anywhere in the world. Amazing.

[Michael Parnham]

Fascinating stuff, I find this type of thing really awesome and what an adventure to be able to travel a route such as this by rail, right up my street think I'll start saving in case of a passenger service starting in the not too distant future. Thank you for such an interesting topic

[Longweekend]

I agree it is an amazing journey but without being too negative it will most likely be filled with cheap 'knock offs' and possibly a few illegal immigrants.....

[Terpe]

The freight train left Yiwu inj China on 1st January 2017.
It journeyed passed through a lot of countries :-
Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France before travelling to the UK through the Channel Tunnel and ending up in London on Wednesday after 18 days

Not sure just how many track gauge changes that means. A few anyway.

It's an interesting project and it's reported that business have sprung up alongside trackside. So this could genuinely be an opportunity despite the usual negativity and distrust from some groups.

Personally I hope this does prove to be a profitable adventure rather than a fanciful idea

Hi-ho and away

[Trefor]

Yes, this is great. But it is a pity that the containers had to change trains 3, or maybe 4 times. Russia has a different gauge track, and the containers had to be put on a different carriage to go through the Chunnel.

[soulman1949]

Absolutely fantastic, would love to do such a journey.

Mind you the headline writers missed a trick, "Beijing to Barking" has a better ring to it! :-)