Two days from Europe to China, for rail freight!
Seems Russia wants to be a serious player in the high speed rail business. If this comes to pass, it could move the transport of high value goods from planes to trains. Greatly reducing related emissions while facilitating ongoing long-distance trade that will help tightly integrate EurAsia. Low carbon long distance freight and people transport.
"Russia's proposed high-speed cargo rail line would be packaged with the much-discussed Moscow-Kazan high-speed passenger train, that will extend for 770 kilometers between the two cities, allowing people to get back and forth in as little as three hours. Construction is set to begin on this line later this year, with $6.5 billion of loans and $1.6 billion of FDI coming from China, while a German consortium led by Siemens, Deutsche Bank, and Deutsche Bahn promising to invest over $2.8 billion into its construction. This new HSR line is tentatively expected to open around 2023.
The broader plan is to extend the Moscow-Kazan high-speed rail line through Kazakhstan and all the way to Beijing, 7,769 kilometers away, feeding into China’s existing 19,000+ kilometer HSR system. This project would tie into China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and will in large part supplant Russia’s iconic, though aging, Trans-Siberian rail line. If this high-speed line is actually built, the total end to end commute time would be more than quartered, dropping to just under 33 hours."