[A] Freight train service from Bayannur city in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to Tehran, Iran's capital, was launched Thursday morning.
The train, carrying 1,150 tonnes of sunflower seeds, will travel 8,352 kilometers through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, arriving in Tehran in 15 days, said Chen Bo, deputy manager of the Hohhot office of China Railway.
The new train route will shorten transportation time by at least 20 days compared with ocean shipping.
(source)
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New Freight Train Links China and Iran
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(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @03:10AM
Somewhat faster than Marco Polo, but (iirc) about the same route and maybe/eventually some of the same trade goods?
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Tuesday May 15 2018, @03:28AM (17 children)
There's no actual building here of new infrastructure, there's no tech angle, it's plain old trains.
Sure, someone has decided to connect all the little tracks in different countries to make one big journey, but even the source article here has less info than a normal summary on SN.
What am I missing here?
Is this something to do with the Trump/Iran/Treaty that I've missed with China supporting the Iranians?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @03:47AM
:)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday May 15 2018, @03:47AM (8 children)
Average speed of 23.2 mph.
I imagine there are some new sections of track, otherwise there would be no story at all here.
I also suspect nothing of the original train but the rail cars and seeds make the whole journey.
Chinese crews wouldn't be familiar with the track and signals in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and those countries' engineers probably wouldn't be familiar with the Chinese engines.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Tuesday May 15 2018, @04:06AM (5 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday May 15 2018, @04:43AM (4 children)
The smart way is to use containerized loads, and just lift them from well car to well car at the borders. You need maybe half a mile of parallel track to minimize handling.
China knows a thing or three about containers.
Why sunflower seeds?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday May 15 2018, @06:39AM
"Why sunflower seeds?"
Supply and demand I would expect. China is the worlds #2 exporter, Iran is #7 importer, so there are tons of seeds to be moved in that direction.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2, Troll) by MostCynical on Tuesday May 15 2018, @06:57AM
Because no one is going to care about them, for the first few loads.
Then, once everyone is comfortable with seed transport, larger things can be moved, either instead of, or *under* the seeds.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Tuesday May 15 2018, @08:30AM
I'm not sure moving containers is faster than using variable-gauge axles in the bogies. See this Talgo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwNl-g_91GE [youtube.com]
I don't know if that is what is being used, but it certainly shows what could be done, and the video mentions the system being used on the border between Khazakhstan and China.
(Score: 1, Troll) by driverless on Wednesday May 16 2018, @04:25AM
Because they pack in well and run/settle everywhere, neatly concealing what's really being shipped from China to Iran.
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Tuesday May 15 2018, @06:13AM
Trains to china were an internal headline in last week's company newsletter for one company I'm involved in - and this is very good news as the products are perishable. They may be Victorean tech, but they're still having a significant influence over modern businesses.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Tuesday May 15 2018, @01:01PM
Rail is kinda a nightmare of century old legacy and competing companies and countries and divisions, so you might be surprised, someone who's still being tested on 1930s signals because there's exactly one remaining in some rural siding would be pretty chill with learning a little Chinese stuff, at least enough to make it to the next CCP.
In the old days, crews slept in the caboose on week long shifts but the standard, perhaps worldwide, is having crew change points along side the track about every seven hours or so. In theory a perfect run with no unexpected passing stops and no track restrictions and no weather or equipment problems takes seven hours, reality likely to be a bit more, most of the time, and there's briefing and inspection time so it would be unusual for a crew to work less than an 8 hour day. Things get whacky with the government and corporate rules once 12 hours in service is exceeded, naturally that only happens when there's an emergency already making things whacky. Also, the rules changed a lot over the last century or two.
The level of "wink and nod" immigration and corporate policy has generally declined over the decades, but AFAIK they haven't gone to the extreme yet of making a train crew go thru customs with the vacation people. CCPs were usually pretty close to the border certainly less than 100 miles on either side. I'm the first in my family in many generations not to work for the railroad in some capacity, a couple hundred miles south of the Canadian border it was truly a rare and unusual noteworthy event to meet a Canadian train crew although it happened a couple of times in my youth and was considered something of a wonder and when news of a Canadian sighting spread thru the office as kids we'd get dragged out to the yard to see a genuine Canadian far out of their normal territory. I guess in the old days immigration had a file on each canadian train crewman to pre-approve them and dispatch FAXed a list of border crossers daily to immigration and that was the entire process of canadian train crews hopping the border temporarily. On the theory that they're driving a freakin' train there's no point in personally searching or harassing the crew because they could simply put tons of weed in the box cars if they wanted, or whatever. No passports required, no visa, nothing, just a name on a list from corporate HQ. Of course that was the old days and I haven't seen a box car lately and I'm sure there's infinitely more highly profitable security theater.
Its similar to aviation where they don't make the pilot land on each border they cross for inspection and trading for local pilots. Its maybe even more similar to maritime shipping where if you're just sailing on past, you merely sail on past, but if you're getting up close and personal with the locals a harbor pilot takes the ship over to guide you thru the treacherous harbor and smooth over the paperwork.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday May 15 2018, @03:51AM
It's just a small piece of a much grander tech story:
China's Engineering Mega-Projects Dwarf the Great Wall [soylentnews.org]
China's Xi Jinping Negotiates $46bn Superhighway to Pakistan [soylentnews.org]
China Plans $503 Billion Investment in High-Speed Rail by 2020 [soylentnews.org]
About 2 trillion dollars for China and Transasia High Speed rail by 2030 [nextbigfuture.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @03:55AM
Off the top of my head, this is part of china's belt and road initiative to link with markets via the Eurasian mainland, opposed to sending shipments by sea. They've sent a few trains to Europe already over plain old rail, but requiring container transfers due to break in track and loading gauge.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday May 15 2018, @04:10AM (1 child)
What you are missing? That the One Belt One Road [wikipedia.org] is on the move.
What does it mean? The USA influence in the region is waning and replaced by the Chinese... mmm... "economic space".
They'll defend their interest in that area, you know?
(the Saudis influence of in the region and the fundamentalist Muslim accents the Wahhabis push will get tempered on the medium term)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by DavePolaschek on Wednesday May 16 2018, @01:33PM
There's also the Iron Silk Road https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Land_Bridge#Iron_Silk_Road_via_Turkey [wikipedia.org]
This would be one of the "number of projects," I'm guessing.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday May 15 2018, @04:42AM
Geopolitics: Learn them, they explain a lot.
(ninja'ed at least three times)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @10:18AM
The Washington Post blog [theiranproject.com] has an entry about it: ...travel times will apparently be shortened by at least 20 days in comparison to cargo ship...there seem to be no plans so far to give in to U.S. demands...Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that Iran and China would 'maintain normal economic ties and trade.'"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 15 2018, @05:49PM
Is this something to do with the Trump/Iran/Treaty that I've missed with China supporting the Iranians?
That's what I gathered.
China eliminated their sanctions on Iran when they complied with the nuke treaty.
This railroad is evidence that they're not going to re-implement sanctions on Iran just because the US decided to renege on that deal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @04:10AM
Do Eurasian countries envy North America's freight rail the way we envy their passenger rail? Probably not; because this actually sounds practical whereas our envious efforts to promote high-speed rail don't seem to be working out so well.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday May 15 2018, @06:00PM (13 children)
China plans to take over the world, starting by re-establishing the old trade routes with modern technology. And by Cthulhu, they are going to do it. The US is decadent, most of Europe is powerless, and no one else in the Far East can project this kind of power.
I've said this several times before: China is more than a country, it's a civilization, a way of life, and it's almost 5,000 years old. And you can bet people get told that plenty, probably more so over the last 10 years ago than before. The 300 or so years the Anglosphere spent humiliating China, especially as concerns trade and *especially* as concerns opium (hello, fentanyl flooding?), are being paid back with interest. China plays the long game, and never, ever, ever forgets. We can't stop them, and we can't blunt their advance. We're screwed.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @10:53PM
I, for one, welcome our new Chinese overlords.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Friday May 18 2018, @01:35AM (11 children)
Keep that in mind. How can they have such a long period of decline, if they're such an awesome civilization?
Except that as we see above, playing the long game is not enough to win the long game. Sometimes the long term strategies are surprisingly shitty compared to the short term strategies.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday May 18 2018, @03:48AM (10 children)
Keep telling yourself that. You're exactly the kind of jingoistic moron the Chinese government loves.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 19 2018, @01:23AM (9 children)
And when the Chinese government is roadkill for some future jingoist moron government that just happens to be better, what will the excuse be? It's happened before after all.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday May 19 2018, @03:38AM (8 children)
You're missing the point: when and if that happens, it's not gonna be the US. The rot is terminal. We're in decline and the Pax Americana is well and truly over. You keep proving the Chi-coms' ruling party's point over and over and over again.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 19 2018, @10:30AM (7 children)
Are you actually making that point? That would be fine. I agree that the US is in decline at present. Whether that becomes permanent or not depends on what the US does.
I just don't think that top-down planning is particularly useful or a good strategy for the US to embrace. It works decently well when you have competent people in charge and doesn't when you don't. The "long game" always gets thwarted by the incompetence of your successors.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday May 19 2018, @04:51PM (6 children)
Well, yes, but China's been around for 5,000+ years in some form or another, whereas the US...hasn't. Not even 1/20th of that. Don't count on China, if they do "win," crumbling in any less than 300-500 years, is what I'm saying, out of sheer momentum if nothing else.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 19 2018, @11:50PM
The US is based on a similar history going back at least 2500 years to ancient Greek times (you'll notice a transition from history to mythology in Chinese history about this time as well). And both have a partly common foundation based on things (such as tool use and evolution) going back sometimes millions of years.
And China has been in its present form for 30 years while the US has been in its present form for about 200.
What is "China" anyway? If they happen to embrace capitalism-based democracy, even of the form that the US enjoys, then I wouldn't mind seeing them stick around for 500 years.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday May 20 2018, @12:27AM (4 children)
While there are many problems that would need to be overcome, 9000 years is quite ample to deal with these all (such as living in space for centuries or thousands of years, obtaining metal around a metal-poor star, stable civilizations on the scale of tens of thousands of years, etc), except for one - the actual speed of the Wolf 424 towards Earth is a mere 2km/s more than two orders of magnitude less than the earlier observation had indicated. Observation error can be so inconvenient.
This is the problem with long term plans. Little, unforeseen problems can completely derail them. And if a little problem derails your long game within a few years of you making it, then it really is short term thinking with long term ambitions.
Going back to the Chinese example, just how much foresight does China really need for its present course? If Deng Xiaoping was looking for outside examples of how to improve China's economy, he needed look no further than Japan which had transitioned from a backwater to a leading military power in about a century, and then repeated the process again after the ignominious defeat of the Second World War. The centralized planning system of Japan and the strategy of grow via export to wealthy developed world countries seems tailor-made to China with ample evidence that it works well. "Let's do what works" doesn't need a lot of long term game-mastery.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday May 20 2018, @07:02PM (3 children)
You're missing the point, and willfully so if I'm any judge. Like I said, the Chi-coms love useful idiots like you. Hope you're brushing up on your Mandarin; I sure as hell am.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday May 21 2018, @05:07AM (2 children)
Why would they? I support freedom. That's their greatest long term threat. Do you?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday May 21 2018, @04:21PM (1 child)
You don't seem to understand what's being said here, Mr. Hallow :/ Deliberately, I suspect. You can "support freedom" all you like, but if you don't have at least minimal survival skills when the other shoe drops, you may not have much freedom to support for very long.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday May 21 2018, @09:05PM
Wouldn't need so-called "minimal survival skills" with a healthy democracy and capitalist economy. Funny how many people are willing to accept an imaginary inevitability rather than do stuff that works.