Although four fifths of the volume of global trade is maritime, rail freight accounts for a rapidly rising percentage of the commercial exchanges across Eurasia, especially between China and Europe. Partly due to the COVID pandemic which grounded many flights and slowed overseas links, rail transport proved its value, being twice as rapid as ocean shipping between China and Europe and cheaper by half than air freight. To facilitate this transition China has built inland production hubs of electronic goods along major rail lines stretching all the way to Europe across Russia and as far as the UK through the Channel, thereby cutting pollution and energy consumption by vastly reducing the volume of trucking. The Authors point out that the geopolitical connectivity ofthe Eurasian continent is being enhanced by the multiplication of railway links which will require uniform standardisation of rail gauges.
