Neither boat nor plane. It's freight by train.

The newest way to send your freight from China to Europe involves spending 15 days on a train that doesn't have a buffet car in sight.

Amsco have developed, with their partners, a method of moving cargo via Train from China, then onto UK destinations. Space is fairly limited at this time, but Amsco are sure that in the future this could become a good alternative to Air freight.

A brief outline of the routing:

On leaving China the train has approximately 50 containers on board. Then when leaving Kazakhstan (the next stop) there are 60 on board and finally on departure from Poland there are 41 on board.

Upon arrival Hamburg/Duisburg, containers are devanned, which is more cost effective than returning empty containers to Duisburg.

The cargo is then placed to 13.6 metre trailers under T1 status into the UK. The trailers would then Customs clear in the normal fashion in the UK and be delivered on wheels to the client.

The transit time , excluding any hiccups at Customs door to door is approximately 22 days.

In Yiwu in eastern China, a locomotive pulling 44 containers laden with suitcases, clothes and an assortment of household goods sets off on a 7,500-mile (12,000Km) journey to western Europe.