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‘Orient Express’ is set to run and run

[ April 10, 2017   //   ]

The China Rail Express service, first operated on a trial basis in January, could develop into a regular fortnightly operation, according to a spokesman for DP World London Gateway.

At a ceremony on 10 April to mark the first return service from the UK back to Yiwu, near Shanghai, DP World UK managing director, Chris Lewis told FBJ that the terminal operator had high hopes that enough regular traffic would be forthcoming to justifying operating the train on a regular basis.

The first westbound service from Yiwu to the UK, which arrived on 18 January, was billed as a one-off trial operation, with officials warning that a regular service could only run if enough traffic was found to justify it, including return traffic from the UK to China.

Chris Lewis said that however that early indications were promising, although continuation of the service would still depend on traffic levels. However, if the service is a success, there are hopes that it could soon be stepped up to a weekly departure.

The rail terminal at DP World London Gateway port and logistics centre would be the terminal for the regular service if it continued, Lewis confirmed, adding that it could generate traffic to and from the port’s new logistics park. The first inbound service into the UK had operated to DB Cargo’s Barking terminal.

The service on 10 April operated with 32 40-foot high-cube containers on board (64teu) and, like the inbound service was operated by a consortium including CRIMT, DB Schenker, InterRail Group and Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment. The train itself runs only as far as Duisburg in Germany, where boxes are transhipped to an eastbound service, and again at points where the rail track gauge changes from the European standard gauge to the Russia/CIS broad gauge and back again to standard gauge for the journey through China.

There is already an extensive network of rail services between China and continental Europe, developed unde the Chinese government’s Belt and Road Initiative to develop trade links.

InterRail is arranging the journey through Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan before the train crosses to Yiwu, China. Container operator OneTwoThree Logistics is overseeing the transportation and booking of cargo for the UK/China rail freight trains, in conjunction with Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment, which is running the service with China Railway Container. DB Cargo is handling the UK end of the operation.

Scheduled journey time is 18 days, which would make the train faster than shipping, though without taking into account the high frequency of shipping services between the UK and China. It would also be considerably cheapr than airfreight.

One of the main customers for the first China-bound train is freight forwarder Kerry Logistics, which in turn has the support of a longstanding food and beverage customer.

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