Just read about Eddies latest plan - “rail fruit” trains from Southern Spain to the UK, reckons each train will take 50,000 truck miles off the roads - thanks Eddie. Wonder what the Spanish hauliers will make of this one?
I hope he doesn’t make the same mistake Westermann did when they decided to do rail freight for Ford, Germany to Spain, the swop bodys didn’t fit through the tunnels in Spain so they all had to be demounted at the border… 
Spanish guage is still different to the rest of Europe, that is why they still have to tranship the containers at hendaye
How long does he think the jouney will take as a lorry will be hard to beat for speed, the freight traffic does not have piority and so the time will not be that short,We send containers to Italy from Germany and they take longer than a lorry to get there,and thats if there are no strikes or problems with the railtrack
due to avalanche problems,@Jimti ,the trailers containers have to meet a laid down set standard ,before being allowed on to the train system, ALL trailers
containers etc are checked and given a certification and label with out this
they will not be allowed to use the train system.
Your thinking of the old spanish rail system. The new AVE (Alte Velocidad Espana) is the same gauge as the french TGV system. There is nothing to stop it running through spain and france and the tunnel into london. Seville, malaga are already connected and if the connection through perpignan is not open already it soon will be. The economics of running fruit on it are another matter but if you get the chance to travel as a passenger do it, it knocks spots of rail travel in the uk and at a fraction of the price. I’ve done what they call the trenhotel overnight from madrid to paris and it’s fantastic.
Ex Haulier:
Your thinking of the old spanish rail system. The new AVE (Alte Velocidad Espana) is the same gauge as the french TGV system. There is nothing to stop it running through spain and france and the tunnel into london. Seville, malaga are already connected and if the connection through perpignan is not open already it soon will be. The economics of running fruit on it are another matter but if you get the chance to travel as a passenger do it, it knocks spots of rail travel in the uk and at a fraction of the price.
The new line was designed for high speed passenger trains, I don’t think they would welcome freight trains plodding up and down holding everything up
Ex Haulier:
I’ve done what they call the trenhotel overnight from madrid to paris and it’s fantastic.
When the train passed through the rail yards at Irun it slows down to walking pace as it passes through a device called a Cambiadores. This adjusts the the wheels on the axles to fit the change in track gauge. You probably didn’t notice it happen, though it does generate a fair bit of noise.
Ex Haulier:
Your thinking of the old spanish rail system. The new AVE (Alte Velocidad Espana) is the same gauge as the french TGV system. There is nothing to stop it running through spain and france and the tunnel into london. Seville, malaga are already connected and if the connection through perpignan is not open already it soon will be. The economics of running fruit on it are another matter but if you get the chance to travel as a passenger do it, it knocks spots of rail travel in the uk and at a fraction of the price. I’ve done what they call the trenhotel overnight from madrid to paris and it’s fantastic.
still does not go anywhere near the border yet nor will for quite a few years yet especially on the Irun side.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting running old freight trains on the new high speed tracks. What has been proposed is to build a number of dedicated high speed freight trains. The idea being to be competive with the the fedex type stuff that is flown overnight, whether it would be economic to extend this to fruit i don’t know but green taxes are going to push up the cost of airfreight substansially.
I know the AVE now runs from madrid to barca, haven’t i seen them building the line from there up to la junqera ?. Where does it run in the north now ?. Isn’t there one out towards la coruna ?.