Panama Canal By pass

 Panama Canal By pass

there has been speculation about using the northwest Passqge as a trade route between SE Asia and even India and Europe.  Physically pssible today but this will always be subject to two massve problems.  the first is random ice flows even in the high season any climate reversal will slam it shut.  The second problem is the short effective season which lasts perhaps two months.  In fact it is mostly impractical and a real gamble.

What folks have actually missed to the potential of the rail land bridge for moving container traffic from prince rupert to Chicago and montreal, or alternately through Churchill.

The large container ships are not passing the Panama canal to start with.  Yet ten days sailing gets you to Prince rupert.  Then an average of five days gats you to Chicago and perhaps two more for montreal..  Then around ten days to Rotterdam.  Using what it built now can move a container from shanghai to rotterdam in an average of twenty seven days plus loading and offloading timmes..

What make Churchill so interesting is that it is six days of sailing time because of the higher latitudes.  Also a properly built out rail system into Churchill will be no further than chicago.  This gives us a potential of sixteen days of sailing and again five days of rail transport.

understand it takes 30 t0 40 days of sailinng to travel from shanghai to Panama and from panama to rotterdam another 20 to forty days.    This is at least fifty to seventy days of sailing.  this is four times the total sailing time.

My first point is that solid rail connectivity already exists and it is all about uloading your ship and dispatching high speed trains downhill to either Chicago and montreal now or alternately to Churchill then loading a new container ship here.

It is obvious that this is a plausible option that massively cuts shipping costs from SE Asia to Europe.  loading, uloading efficiency gains and rapid throughput is surely achievable and even can be planned in.

Shippers need scheduling certainty because those containers need to be available for loading when your vship calles in montreal.

We are describing the true practical northwest passage.  Also recall shipping containers into Churchill during the winter allows for inventory storage ahead of a spring fleet arrival.  However, the actual shipping season is short, between August 1 through September.  so it is there but chicago through montreal is obviously year round.