Britain has become the latest European destination to receive rail freight directly from China. The first train arrived in London this week after a 15-day, 7,500-mile journey from Yiwu in Zhejiang Province. London is the latest European city to become a destination for rail cargo from China. Over 1,702 freight trains last year made the voyage to Europe, more than twice the figure in 2015.
In the absence of a carbon tax, businesses and consumers alike need give no thought at all to the pollution caused by importing or exporting goods. Air freight is relatively expensive, but far cheaper than it would be if its impact on the environment was properly accounted for. It is difficult to accurately compare emissions from different transport modes, but estimates have it that twenty tons of cargo sent by sea produces two per cent of the CO2 emissions it would if it was taken by plane. Sending the same load by rail would account for four per cent and arrive quicker than by sea.
Another long-distance rail route in the planning is an ambitious 12,400-mile, trans-Eurasian connection between the Atlantic and Pacific.
Planners presented the scheme to the Russian Academy of Science, claiming it will make Russia a global transportation hub and boost tourism. A new motorway would connect and improve upon existing road networks across Russia and make possible an overland car trip from Britain to America via the Channel Tunnel. Alongside the super highway would run a new high-speed railway line as well as gas and oil pipelines. It is likely the road, railway and pipeline would pass through cities such Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk and Vladivostok.
Vladimir Fortov, the Head of the Russian Academy of Science, said: “The idea is that basing on the new technology of high-speed rail transport we can build a new railway near the Trans-Siberian Railway, with the opportunity to go to Chukotka and Bering Strait and then to the American continent.”
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