The first direct freight train between China and the UK arrived in London on Wednesday (January 18).
The train departed Yiwu West station in China on January 1, 2017 and traveled 12,450 kilometers to Barking within the eastern a part of the British capital.
Representatives from the Chinese embassy in London, in addition to officials from the trade, logistics and investment sectors, attended a ceremony to mark the arrival of the freight train.
Containers carrying goods equivalent to household goods, fabrics and clothing passed through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France before crossing the Channel Tunnel into the UK.
The containers carrying the products passed through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France before crossing the Channel Tunnel into the UK.
The train route costs half the worth of air freight and is way faster than sea transport.
The recent trade route, which Britain has dubbed the New Silk Road, is believed to enable higher Sino-British trade relations.
London is now the fifteenth European city directly linked to China by train, and Britain desires to be seen as a worldwide trading nation because it heads towards separation from the European Union.
Carsten Pottharst, managing director of Swiss InterRail Group, the train operator, said he hoped there could be more such connections between China and Britain.
“This moment was important to show that we can run a train to the UK in less than 18 days,” he said. “It also depends on how much freight we can get from the UK to China – if we can get more trains eastbound there could be more.”
Oscar Lin, chief executive of OTT Logistics, an area train booking agency within the UK, said there was strong interest within the service.
“This is the primary test train – we would like to know what the response of the British market can be,” he said. “But we’ve already had a lot of inquiries… 50 or 60 in just two weeks, without any marketing.”
- CNA/Agencja/de/rw
- Source: Channel NewsAsia
