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This was the first article I read in Yesterday's Times; all told it is indicative of how Europe and Asia have a long way to go to meet the efficiency of US Class I roads. I noted the tonnage of the HP train 1800 tons; a US road 5000T is more par for the course with coal trains well exceeding that amount. Twenty three days 7000 miles do that math on that one. Transloading shipments twice on the journey? This land bridge has a long way to go.
But what I find interesting is that the Asian roads in China and the former Soviet Union are in the market with a land bridge. The concept, i.e. transloading containers from a ship in, say, Seattle for forwarding to, say, New York then transloaded to a vessel for delivery to Europe was considered here in the US; however it never went anywhere for reasons of which I have no knowledge.
Related yet surprising over thirty years after the fact is that there was a sincere overture (reported in the Chicago Tribune) from Japanese maritime interests during 1980 to acquire Milwaukee Road Lines West. At that time, the ERIE was intact NY-Chicago, and with such could have resulted in a coast to coast transcontinental route dedicated to handling land bridge traffic. The proposal was to operate container trains from docking in Seattle to sailing in New York in five days.
That too went nowhere.
Vincent206 Member # 15447
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quote:When the train reached the Belarus-Poland border, the containers had to be moved again to flat cars with a narrower wheel gauge. While 41 flat cars headed on across Europe right away, 9 more had to wait for a separate locomotive because the train would otherwise exceed European regulations for a freight train’s maximum length.
Just a guess, but 41 railcars plus x-number of locomotives would likely be about 3300 feet, which would be a pretty average train in North America.
Kazakhstan has also placed an order for 603 passenger cars from Talgo that will be configured into 21 trainsets, so there's some attention being paid to rail infrastructure in that remote country. I wonder what their roads look like. Superhiways? I doubt it.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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Psst, Kazzis!
Wanna get 28 Talgo cars on the cheap? I know a warehouse in Milwaukee at which they are sitting.
notelvis Member # 3071
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But can Kazakhstan have those Talgos up and running before I post 60 more times?
I doubt it.
Vincent206 Member # 15447
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OK, here's the plan: Astana, Kazakhstan is hosting a world's fair in 2017 and they plan to have an HSR line in place between Astana and Almaty (those are the 2 biggest cities in Kazakhstan). If CAHSR and All Aboard Florida aren't open by then, I may go to Kazakhstan, just to see what the world looks like at 160mph. I know there are plenty of other places where the trains go fast, but Kazakhstan for a world's fair sounds interesting.
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