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Helsinki - Vostochny - Yokohama, container train

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samulih

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yle.fi news

Finnish logistics company Nurminen Logistics will send a freight train from Helsinki on Thursday headed to the port city of Yokohama, located in the Kanagawa Prefecture to the south of Tokyo.

The route, which is more than 10,000 kilometres long, runs from Helsinki to the Russian port city of Vostochny and from there by sea to Yokohama.

That is a long way.
 
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Taunton

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Finnish logistics company Nurminen Logistics will send a freight train from Helsinki on Thursday headed to the port city of Yokohama
That's not a train from one to the other at all. It's a perfectly normal set of container flats on the Finnish and Russian 5'0" gauge to the Russian Pacific coast (a journey possible straight through for over 100 years) at Nakhodka Vostochny, the longstanding main container port on the Trans-Siberian, followed by trans-shipment and a substantial sea voyage round to the east coast of Japan. If I'm not mistaken it's a longstanding freight flow - more than half the cars on Finnish roads seem to be Japanese.

Clearly Finnish PR companies are as prone to hyperbole as their UK counterparts.
 

Gag Halfrunt

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From the article:
The last frieght train to depart Finland bound for Japan was more than 30 years ago, according to the company.

Cars made in Japan are shipped to Europe in massive roll-on roll-off ships, and many Japanese car manufacturers have factories in European countries, including the UK.
 

Taunton

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From the article:


Cars made in Japan are shipped to Europe in massive roll-on roll-off ships, and many Japanese car manufacturers have factories in European countries, including the UK.
That's Western Europe. Finland is a long way from there and has traditionally been supplied from Asia by rail across Russia. It's a different market. You only have to look at all the flights from the Far East that (normally) come into the airport at Helsinki, out of all proportion for the size of the country.
 

rf_ioliver

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That's Western Europe. Finland is a long way from there and has traditionally been supplied from Asia by rail across Russia. It's a different market. You only have to look at all the flights from the Far East that (normally) come into the airport at Helsinki, out of all proportion for the size of the country.
Cars typically come in via ship to Finland - via Hanko mainly; there has never been much traffic of that nature into Finland from Japan/Korea. There used to be a massive amount of new vehicles being shipped via Finland to Russia up until 2008 ( the law changed in Russia plus a global financial crisis ).

As for flights, Helsinki sits very nicely on the great circle route from the Far East meaning shorter flight times to Helsinki then onto Europe from there. Plus, Finland is a destination in its own right for Far Eastern tourists. Finnair especially has cultivated a morning out-evening back scheduling* to and from European cities which ties in very nicely with the Asian flights - helped by its time zone too - making Helsinki a very lucrative and convenient starting and ending point.


*I can attest to this - very easy to make a whole day in, say, London, Frankfurt, Paris and get back for supper, sauna and bed.
 
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