Last October the British and Chinese governments agreed to allow more than double the number of passenger flights between the two nations and threw the door open to unlimited cargo flights. To date, however, no air carrier has availed itself of the opportunity. Instead, rail, as well as rival ground-based modes, have risen in popularity.
U.S. freight railroads are projected to spend an estimated $22bn to maintain and upgrade the nation's private rail network in 2017, according to the rail industry's trade group, the Association of American Railroads (AAR).
A U.S. startup pursuing Elon Musk's vision for near-supersonic rail transport announced an agreement on a feasibility study for a hyperloop system connecting two European cities.
Businesses that transport their goods via the highways, railways or the airways are likely to see an expansion of the nation's infrastructure. That's good news not just for companies that want to move their products in the most efficient manner possible. It may also be good news for a subset of the coal sector that produces so-called metallurgical coal for steelmaking.
More than a quarter of all goods traded between the UK and Europe, worth around £91.4bn ($113.82bn) a year, come through the Channel Tunnel, a report has found. In its report, "Economic Footprint of the Channel Tunnel Fixed Link," Ernst & Young found that 30 percent of UK exports, worth £43.6bn ($54.3bn), and 22 percent of imports, worth £47.8bn ($59.53bn), to and from the EU depend on the tunnel.