270 km per hour freight train connects Paris to London

Eurocarex has achieved a major first: the first test of a high-speed freight train between Lyon St Exup?ry airport and St. Pancras International Station in London, passing via Paris Charles De Gaulle airport and the Channel Tunnel. This test demonstrates the efficiency, speed and environmental benefits of a shift in intermodal container traffic from air to the high-speed rail network.

The high-speed freight train number 27274 (which has a potential load of 120 tonnes of parcels equivalent to 7 articulated trucks or 7 Boeing 737 cargo planes) left Lyon-St Exup?ry airport on Tuesday 20 March at 16:42 and arrived at St. Pancras International Station in London on Wednesday morning, after passing through the Channel Tunnel, travelling on High Speed 1 (HS1) and having made an intermediate stop to take on extra cargo at Roissy (Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport).

The Express Rail Eurocarex operation could, in time, be connected to the trans-continental distribution network for next-day delivery, with a carbon footprint lower than delivery by air and by road. In the future, express freight could also be accompanied by traditional freight.

This achievement has been made possible by the coordination between the main European airports that are members of Eurocarex (Paris - CDG, Amsterdam, Li?ge and Lyon), the infrastructure managers (Eurotunnel, High Speed 1 and the manager of the French railway network R?seau Ferr? de France) the operators (SNCF and Europorte) and their customers (Air France Cargo, FedEx, WFS, Geodis etc.). The loading and unloading operations in the passenger stations will be conducted by the Geodis subsidiary Geoparts Rail Solutions. Eurocarex is a project on a pan- European scale. It is part of Eurotunnel's strategy to make the Channel Tunnel the choice for the transporting of freight between the UK and continental Europe.

Eurocarex is planned as the answer to the continuing rise in fuel prices, to the growth in road congestion and the environmental constraints that limit the number of night flights.

It is anticipated that at least seven train sets per day will be carrying freight between the two countries each night, when passenger services are not active.

Source: http://www.tandlnews.com.au/