A new era of business globalization is certainly here, as the freight train from China carrying cloth, socks, bags and household goods worth millions of pounds, has recently traveled all the way to arrive at East London.
The train started the mammoth journey 18 days ago from the manufacturing city of Yiwu and went more than 7500 miles after passing through seven countries. The Channel Tunnel was the selected route for this journey. The train was greeted by a huge fandom of politicians, journalists, and excited residents of London.
The station presented a festive look on the day of this historic milestone, with people dressed up as colorful Chinese dragons amusing the crowds before the train arrived.
Leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, Cllr Darren Rodwell talked to the media,
“This is great news for the borough and London. It’s a sign of Barking and Dagenham being at the epicentre of the capital’s eastward shift. You could say it’s the rising east meets the far East.”
The train is a lot faster than a container ship and it transports goods at half the price of a plane. The 34-carriage train will be the part of a weekly service, making London the 15th European city to host direct freight trains from China.
The train brought about £4 million of commodities directly from the factory floors of Yiwu, an industrial hub which is responsible for producing over 60 percent of the world’s Christmas goods.
It is a tremendous achievement as previously, the difference in rail gauges meant a single train couldn’t travel directly in between the two countries. This difference in rail gauges is also the primary reason that no single train can tread on a journey around the world, and the goods have to be unloaded and loaded on different trains at different points.
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