New Rail to Link China and Netherlands

An intercontinental rail link from Shenzhen in China to Rotterdam in the Netherlands could get the go-ahead this week according to Chinese reports.

A seminar is to be held in China on Thursday to discuss the new line which will travel through 21 countries including India and Turkey, covering more than 15,150km - almost 3,000km shorter than the sea route, writes Chinese news agency Xinhua.

The idea to build the rail link was first proposed in the 1990s, but this is the first time a seminar is to be held to discuss the plans say organisers at China's Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences.

There are two transcontinental railways currently in operation, the Euro-Asian rail link which runs 13,000km from Vladivostok in Russia to Rotterdam and the new 10,900km Euro-Asian Continental Bridge which runs from Jiangsu Province in China to Rotterdam.

By staff writer