High-speed railways are revolutionizing trade in Eurasia (China)

Salon ^ | 31 December 2014 | Pepe Escobar

[Lorianne]

November 18, 2014: it’s a day that should live forever in history. On that day, in the city of Yiwu in China’s Zhejiang province, 300 kilometers south of Shanghai, the first train carrying 82 containers of export goods weighing more than 1,000 tons left a massive warehouse complex heading for Madrid. It arrived on December 9th.

Welcome to the new trans-Eurasia choo-choo train. At over 13,000 kilometers, it will regularly traverse the longest freight train route in the world, 40% farther than the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway. Its cargo will cross China from East to West, then Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, France, and finally Spain.

You may not have the faintest idea where Yiwu is, but businessmen plying their trades across Eurasia, especially from the Arab world, are already hooked on the city “where amazing happens!” We’re talking about the largest wholesale center for small-sized consumer goods — from clothes to toys — possibly anywhere on Earth.

The Yiwu-Madrid route across Eurasia represents the beginning of a set of game-changing developments. It will be an efficient logistics channel of incredible length. It will represent geopolitics with a human touch, knitting together small traders and huge markets across a vast landmass. It’s already a graphic example of Eurasian integration on the go. And most of all, it’s the first building block on China’s “New Silk Road,” conceivably the project of the new century and undoubtedly the greatest trade story in the world for the next decade.

[tumblindice]

Monorairuh!

[Vigilanteman]

The current reality is that rail is the cheapest way to move cargo overland where rail lines exist, but ocean container is cheaper still.

However, if there is enough commerce on an overland train route, it lowers the cost for the entire route.

[chajin]

The return of the Silk Road.

[catnipman]

Now if the U.S. can just figure out how to build a high-speed freight railroad across the Atlantic we could finally catch up with the Chinese.

[Olog-hai]

Salon will cheer on any communist “victory”.

[Maine Mariner]

How many days to ship goods by container ship from China to Spain? How many days loading dock to unloading dock using a ship?

[Qout]

China now has freight trains running to Germany 5 times a week.

[AlaskaErik]

It would be even faster if all countries adopted a standard rail design and width.

[okie01]

Now if the U.S. can just figure out how to build a high-speed freight railroad across the Atlantic we could finally catch up with the Chinese.

However, the route in the article is NOT a "high-speed freight railroad".

The shipment cited traversed 13000 km in 21 days. That's equivalent to around 386 miles/day.

U.S. railroads routinely move freight coast-to-coast in a week or less -- a rate of 420 miles/day.

[HiTech RedNeck]

If the goods are going to get put on another railroad, keeping them on a train saves labor.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Some train cars will adjust to variable width tracks.

[oldplayer]

SALON ragazine is so left it is a joke. No where in the article is the headline phrase “High Speed Rail” defined. These are likely regular speed trains that are given priority as they bring the freight. I am skeptical about the train featured in the being the train that brings freight to Madrid.

This article gives cover for the California-Jerry Brown debacle that is sucking dry that regime’s resources.

Oldplayer

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I work in transportation logistics. Ships suck. Nothing beats the road or train.

[digger48]

Except Amtrak.

Took my sis 50+ hours to get from SF to Chicago.

One could drive it in that time and get a good nights rest at a Holiday Inn on the way.

[tcrlaf]

“The return of the Silk Road.”

That is pretty close to reality...
The Russians have been spending BIG money for about 8 years now to rebuild and upgrade the Trans-Siberian and “BAM” railroads, with Chinese help, to double and triple rail high speed standards, to facilitate China-Europe goods movement, and to open up the Far East to development.

Large sections are already completed.

The Chinese REALLY want a secure overland route for their output, to Europe and the rest of the world, and they have been paying for much of it.

[nathanbedford]

To discount the geopolitical and world economic significance of this rail connection between China and Europe because the trains are not yet running on time is about as misleading as it was to excuse Mussolini because his trains did run on time.

I have been brooding on these threads for some time now about a potential Berlin/Moscow/Beijing axis and we are now seeing physical as well as symbolic evidence of the potential for that extremely dangerous alliance. Make no mistake, my neighbors here in Germany are as inclined to blame all of their problems on America as they are on Putin. They see America is the country which invades their privacy. They have a whole different view of privacy than Americans entertain. This attitude is now leaching into a view of America as a sinister (read Jewish) Wall Street conspiracy fomenting discord around the world (read Iraq, read Ukraine) for its own advantage to its military/industrial complex.

America is plunging headlong toward disaster. We have squandered our military superiority in the sands of Iraq and Afghanistan where we have also poured away our treasure. Nothing could be more disheartening than to read a thread yesterday in which brave and patriotic veterans became indignant when the failed policy in those lands as been criticized. Criticism of policy is not criticism of the service of heroic veterans whether of these wars or of Vietnam. We must be free to debate policy or perish.

We are hollowing out our economy, taxing ourselves into competitive disadvantage, impoverishing ourselves with debt, burdening ourselves with unproductive immigrants, regulating ourselves until we are strangled, and setting race against race for political advantage. Our opposition party, surrendered to greed and cynicism, has neither the desire nor the integrity to change our course so it is worse than unrealistic, it is the essence of folly to expect salvation from Washington.

Perhaps Jimmy Rogers had it right when he moved his family to Singapore and determined to raise his daughters to be fluent in Mandarin. He is a through and through libertarian who has no illusions about what is going on in Washington. I don't think you will hear him talk about the problems of making the trains run on time on the New Silk Road, I think you will hear him talk about the real world of power and money. Perhaps we should listen to the likes of Jimmy Rogers and, yes even to this rank leftist, Pepe Escobar. We had better start listening and quick.

[Jonty30]

At 200mph, through mountainous terrains, China could reach Europe within two days once the system was complete. It may not be a Maglev, but that’s pretty high speed to me.

[ChiMark]

It’s B.S. You are correct it’s Communist propaganda. The sheer tonnage of the freight we move could not be sustained at high speeds.

China’s streets are littered with human feces because they have 7th century
sanitation . The country is beyond filth and dirt. The people are
desperately poor.

Leave it to Salon to deliver absolute commie hogwash.

[Jonty30]

That is a very good point. Communism only allows for very modest gains, due to people not being free.