Comments by "Peter Jacobsen" (@pjacobsen1000) on "China-Laos railway boosts Chinese imports of Thai durian" video.

The headline says "boosts imports of Thai Durian", but they don't mention that in the video. Some numbers comparing fruit value/quantity before and after using the railway would be useful. Two days saved time probably doesn't make much of a difference. If it's also cheaper to transport by train, it begins to make sense, but the video didn't make that claim. Let's wait a couple of years and see what economic impact this railway has had on SW China/Lao/Thai trade and economy.
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@araara4746 He said that by road it used to take 6-8 days, but by rail it takes 4-6 days. That's easy math.
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@araara4746 Why would they transport fruit from Thailand to Chengdu/Chongqing by sea? Farm - Bangkok - ship - FangChengGang - onto a train - transport to Chengdu. That route is too long and I doubt they used it much before. It's just something to say for the camera. If it were to Shanghai I could understand, but not to Chengdu. Yes, 2 days of 7 is 28%, but it is still only 2 days. We are talking about fruit, not profits. My basic skepticism is this: Has the railway really made a major improvement in Thai/Lao/China trade? Time will tell, but this video doesn't give much indication.
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@araara4746 Ok, let's go with that argument. It would then be because of reduced cost that they use the new railway. Sadly, the video didn't mention anything about cost comparisons.
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@araara4746 Ok, thanks for that. I suppose some of the cost is also related to crossing two customs checks that might not be the most efficient around.
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@Argus-m1s Yes, there are, but that fact is not really related to my comment which is about the savings in cost and time of using the railway vs. shipping by sea.
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@Argus-m1s As you clearly saw in the video, all the containers with fruit were refrigerated. Sea freight is not wise to Chengdu/Chongqing, perhaps, but it is very wise for fruit going to Shanghai. The type of transportation will vary depending on destination. Anyway, neither you or I know all the details. I am merely voicing a little bit of skepticism regarding the benefit of this new railway line, compared to the cost of building it. We will find our answers in the next 5-10 years.
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@Argus-m1s As you can see in the video, all fruits are transported in refrigerated containers, even if they are only going to Chengdu. That is probably a wise choice. Re. sea freight, this makes sense when the destination is far away, but near the coast, like Shanghai. In any case, neither you nor I know all the facts. My main point was to voice a little skepticism regarding the usefulness of this new rail line, compared to the cost of building it. Let's see 5-10 years from now. Maybe I will be proven wrong.
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@Argus-m1s Yes, there is certainly no shortage of high-speed rail in China. But I would like to see more night train options on the longer lines, say Shg-Chengdu, Shg-Kunming, Bj-Shenzhen. I'd much rather spend 12 hours lying down than 12 hours sitting. If I travel Bj-Shg or Shg-Shenzhen I always choose the night option.
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@Argus-m1s Yes, investment in high-speed rail continues. I think what the foreign media says is that some routes don't have the population numbers required to fill the trains, or the numbers required to repay the construction cost. Some lines are very profitable, of course. Shg-Bj line is highly profitable. Infrastructure is not only about profitability, of course, but also about improving the overall economy by improving transportation. But there will always be a limit to how much you should build. The argument in the foreign media is that perhaps China is building too much. We can't know for sure, we can only speculate. Maybe the foreign media will prove to be wrong, maybe right.
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@Argus-m1s Not that slow. BJ-SHG has a couple of D-trains leaving around 19:00/20:00/21:00. They take about 10 hours. Daytime G-train may take as little as 5 hours, but for me, that is still a long time to just sit in a chair.
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@Argus-m1s May I ask which province you're in? Maybe I've been there.
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@Argus-m1s "you seem to think it's unnecessary to transport fruits through this train". That is a misunderstanding of my position. Certainly the train is excellent for transporting fruit. My point is that the high cost of building the train isn't quite justified by the time or money saved by transporting fruit on it. Let me give an analogy: Every day you take the bus to and from work. One day you decide to spend 3 million on a Ferrari. "This Ferrari is great", you say, "it saves me 10 minutes on my commute to and from work". My question is: Was it worth the cost of the Ferrari? Jiangxi, yes, I rode my bicycle through there on my first bicycle trip: Wuyuan, JingDeZhen, NanChang, Zhangshu, XinYu, AnFu, YongXin, JingGangShan. Very nice trip, spicy noodles with pickles.
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@Argus-m1s No, sea transport for those consumer goods is not 'express' enough. But if it were 1000 tons of rice, they might still transport it by sea.
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@Argus-m1s "freight railway between China and Europe." I know. Originally, it started in LianYunGang, later, they made a terminus in YiWu, I think, but you can ship from anywhere. It's faster, but more expensive. Most importers and exporters still use container ship. And now there are some geo-political complications between Europe and Russia. The world is complicated.
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