Author Topic: The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)  (Read 3250 times)

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Offline Aosta

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The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)
« on: August 22, 2020, 01:47:38 PM »

To:- Her Divine Majesty Queen Klara & President Emile Sauzee

The Empire of Aosta spans almost from the Kyne to the Alucard. We feel that the Empire has enormous untapped economic potential and over the last few months we have begun taking steps towards realising this potential. One of the keys to this strategy centres around making it easier for our businesses to tap into foreign markets while at the same time allowing companies within our nation to source materials and products as cheaply as possible from outside the Empire. With this is mind we are looking at ensuring the central parts of the Empire that lie in the centre of Aosta have as good access to the ports as the rest of the Empire. With this in mind we want to propose a connection of our nations railway systems to allow heavy goods to be hauled to ports. We would also like to suggest a form of Free Trade Zone at each nations railheads at the coast.

I hope this is a project you would find interesting and would like to discuss. I therefore would like to invite you to come and visit Ovado in order to discuss the matter, either in person or via a representative. This is a project we are excited about and believe could help the whole of central Albion belt.

With Warm Regards

Prince Lorenzo Tornincasa
Regent of the Emperor.

Offline Libby

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Re: The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)
« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2020, 09:37:26 AM »

To:- Prince Lorenzo

The Queendom of Lodja was keen to be part of the Pan-Albion Railway until the project seemingly failed to expand this far south. An East to West railway corridor I think will bring great benefit to the people along it. The idea of a form of Free Trade zone at railheads is an intriguing one. Please expect my attendance at these talks along with my finance Minister.

May Sessifet Bless You.

Queen Klara II

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Re: The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2020, 10:28:29 PM »
Prince Lorenzo had been expecting the Lodjains to cancel the meeting following the data security disaster that they had just experienced. Lorenzo had a little wager going on with Peter his Head of Security about who would actually turn up to represent the Queendom. Regardless of who came they would be representing the Queen of the Empire's neighbour and it was best to treat them with great respect. Prince Lorenzo had therefore ensured that Ovado's International Airport was ready with a large number of local school children on standby with the Wolf Banner in one hand and the Lodjain flag in the other. It had been hyped by the press over the last few days that this would be the first official visit from the Queendom in decades. Lodja was a nation that they considered neighbours but not yet friends in fact Lorenzo's sister Brigida had described living next door to them like a real life Kardashian's living next door. He saw the Empire as very different. The Empire was a rather conservative nation and he saw the government as being rather less forgiving than those over the border. Had the data leak happened here then Lorenzo was sure that by now people would have been dealt with by the Carbineiri for simply being mentioned on one of the e-mails.

The Prince was about to ask the Captain in charge of the military band if he wanted in on the wager about who the Lodjains would send when the aircraft bringing the Lodjains was sighted and so the Prince got set up ready to receive them. As the aircraft came to a halt and the band began to play the Prince walked to the foot of the aircraft steps to greet their guests. "Welcome to the Empire." the Regent said proudly.

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Re: The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2020, 05:02:12 PM »
Queen Klara was not sure whether she was doing the right thing at the moment. Lodja had just seen its ruling council, The Conclave, descimated by her actions to rid corruption and other issues from the government and while she was onboard the plane to fly her into the capital of their neighbours the country would be left under the watchful eye of her wife Crown-Princess Roksana and the Lord of the Conclave Besarian Ivanov. The flight over the continent of Albion was simple enough and having a three hour flight ahead the Queen spent much of it looking at files of potential members of the future Conclave. She was joined in her onboard office by her Ladies in Waiting, Anna Immich, Jasmina Danailov , Tonya Bogdanovic and Zhenya Markov who every now and again were asked for their knowledge of a particular candidate. The Ladies in Waiting where as good as any national intelligence agency when it came to the scandal and gossip around the Palace. As the Queen perused each folder she would toss the rejects into the nearby bin while placing the promising ones in a folder.

By the time they got close to Ovado Klara was prepared in the trademark long blue dress with golden pattern. After all the recent visits overseas it did feel strange not to have King Leopold with her but there was no way she would trust him with being part of any delegation such as this. Leaving her onboard private office she found one of the trusted Ministers, Dragan Knežević, waiting for her. He'd been busy over the flight catching up on some Lodjain football and answering e-mails from concerned members of the business community regarding financial issues which he oversaw. "Good Morning Your Divine Majesty" Dragan bowed as the Queen entered the main fuselage which was set up like a lounge. "Did you manage to put together a Conclave?" he asked

"Not quiet. We got some posts but not all." Queen Klara responded. "It'll be a nice surprise for when we get home." The Queen asked Tonya just to check her hem on the dress and once the Lady in Waiting was satisfied they made their way out of the aircraft to meet the Prince. While Klara lead the way down the steps it was actually Anna who was first to respond to the Prince. "Your Highness it is my honour to introduce Her Divine Majesty Queen Klara of Lodja, Guardian of Sessifet." With her formal task completed the Head Lady in Waiting retreated to stand behind the Queen and next to Dragan as Klara stepped forward.

"Prince Lorenzo thank you for this intriguing invitation. I look forward to hearing what you have in mind." Klara greeted her host


Offline Aosta

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Re: The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2020, 11:12:59 PM »
"Your Divine Majesty its a great honour to meet you." Prince Lorenzo lied. He didn't really put much weight on the Lodjain royals because there was no way they had a long noble line such as the Tornincasa family had and then the insane belief that a Goddess lived inside this woman. "We have a great deal we wish to discuss." Lorenzo looked at the number of Lodjains and was worried that perhaps they hadn't brought enough cars to ferry everyone to the Palace but in his mind the Ladies in Waiting were just simply boubbles of the Queen's vanity and so he packed them off towards one vehicle while he rode in another with the Queen and her Finance Minister. "The Empire is exceited about what could happen here today. We're kind of in a strange situation of stradling the whole of Albion which at times makes our nations industries a little stretched. I hope we can today put aside the lack of co-operation in the past and put together an arrangement that helps both nations and allows us to both make some money for our people." To Lorenzo this was just a step on a road map to something bigger but with one step having been taken the second must now follow.

As they reached the Palace a huge marble forecourt was surrounded by high dark black iron fences topped with golden coloured spikes. The cars stopped on the spot appointed at the foot of the staircase to the Palace itself. "I wonder whether your traditions dictate us all meeting together" Lorenzo asked gesturing to the car with the four Ladies in Waiting exiting. "If you prefer I can arrange for your Ladies to tour the Palace and perhaps relax a little or naturally we can all meet together." Lorenzo awaited the Queen making her decision before heading inside the Palace to the lounge on the ground floor. It was one of his favourite rooms in the Palace as it caught the sun most of the day and the artworks of the various members of his family hanging on the wall always reminded him of when along with his older now deceased brother and his sister Brigidia the three siblings would sit with their parents and listen to stories about great-great-great-great-grandparents. He imagined in a hundred years time his own descendants sitting in the room doing the same but first he had a deal to conclude.

"If I may get us straight to the task at hand" The Prince presented a map showing the current railway network of Aosta, "The map does include what we know about the Lodjain network but I'm not entirely sure how accurate it is." Lorenzo shrugged his shoulders. "What we would like to create is a step further than where Ardia went with their Southern Line. They merely explored a high speed rail-link, I would like this to have more. What I envisage is a three step plan." He placed several overlays onto the map.

"First is that we connect our networks to ensure that all our major cities can be reached as swiftly as possible. For us it would be a single ultra high speed line from East to West with hubs along the way allowing passengers and freight to jump off and head North or South. Ideally I'd like to think that once completed the project would see freight be able to make the 5,000 or so kilometer journey from Ovado to Gaia in around 24 hours for passengers and 48 hours at most. That would require us having an average speed of around just over 100kph for freight, double that for passengers."

"The second step is to develop a common type of engine and rolling stock to make the process even quicker as we can interchange the loads and pulling engines as quickly as possible to therefore make sure that we can speed up the transfer of cargo and passengers after all they do say time is money and the aim of this project is to help us make money."

"The final step is the key I believe to making this work. I would like us to designate certain rail-heads as Free Trade Zones. I purpose one in Ovado, one in Rayo on our East coast and one in Gaia. They would be big enough to allow temporary storage of goods and materials while also allowing for speedy offloading onto more localised traffic. Any goods or materials that enter through one of these Free Trade Zones and originate from Aosta or Lodja will be able to enter tariff free. Should they then cross any national border a tariff will be paid. So if I may give an example. A company in Bemposta a small town just outside the capital of Ovado here. They make bicycles for the sake of the example. They load a container of their bikes onto a train in Bemposta which then moves to the local hub and onto our rail-link. 36 hours later it arrives in Gaia and is offloaded tariff free and the bikes then head in Lodja and lots of people enjoy riding them with their family. Meanwhile some of them head to a nation on your southern boarder and then the bikes would be liable to be charged a tariff. It would allow us each to have a controlled route into the markets of each other but also cut down the amount of time moving products across the continent as currently sea routes for bulky goods is a 17,000km sail assuming Runavik allow us to thread through their islands. What do you think of this proposal?"

Offline Libby

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Re: The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)
« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2020, 10:10:16 PM »
Klara was a little unsure whether to have the Ladies in Waiting accompany them as she was very rarely without the company of them. The Queen thought for a moment, "Anna please stay with us, Jasmina, Tonya and Zhenya feel free to take advantage of the hospitality Prince Lorenzo has extended." The Queen waited for the three ladies to bow before leaving to follow their host with her finance minister and the Head Lady in Waiting. It seemed that Lorenzo was keen to get to business as there was little small talk before he outlined the idea. "Its certainly an ambitious plan" Klara agreed after the explanation. "Our own railway network I wouldn't describe as being world class compared to many however its always been good enough for us. It may require a little spit and polish for what you suggest but then the nation could do with that anyway. Dragen here can probably speak to the other points with more knowledge than me."

"Thank you Your Divine Majesty" Dragan prepared himself to respond, "The theory is sound for what is being proposed." He was addressing his Queen more than the Prince, "It could make an interesting way of fostering trade between us. I would though have two points I'd like His Highness to consider." Dragan turned to face the Prince more now than his Queen. "The first is to do with the relative size. Aosta is much longer than Lodja in terms of geography. To have goods only go to Ovado or Rayo in a nation 5,000km wide is rather limiting. Perhaps we could add one to the centre of Aosta too. The second point is that I think we would need to better define the idea of the certificate of origin. At the moment I know Aosta is beginning to grow its trade network and we are connected to the CNN which has lots of rules about trade. As both of us develop I would not like to think this policy or agreement may be a work round for a backdoor. So if I give you an example. At present any CNN nation may import goods into Lodja with very little restriction. There could be a scenario where an East Moreland technology company import a TV, for the sake of this, into Lodja but then don't put the plug on. They simply put the plug on in a warehouse in Gaia and then use the railway to take it into Ovado and could say that the TV was manufactured in Lodja while only one process was. I think we should insist that more than 60% of the processes required to complete the project are done in either of our nations to qualify for this. I think this would potentially shut down the idea of this being exploited."

Offline Aosta

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Re: The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)
« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2020, 07:56:22 PM »
Lorenzo thought he could like the Finance Minister. He was a man who clearly knew his area of expertise and didn't talk about what the problems his nation faced through their own stupidity. It wasn't Lorenzo's concern that Lodja had let their rail network slip and frankly the Queen should be embarassed to so casually admit that. " I think there is a lot of sense in what your saying in regards the certificate of origin. It was not a thought I had regarding your connection with the CNN, but now I think perhaps it would be best to set that mark at 75% not 60%. That way we have a very clear incentive to help production in our continent. I think though you'll be aware that my sister concluded a trade deal with the Morelanders a while ago and naturally over the next few months I think we may seek to add additional agreements with the nations in TUNA and the remaining two CNN nations. Therefore this percentage and concept could change so I hope that you'd be open to re-negotiating this arrangement perhaps at regular intervals?" The next point was Lorenzo hoping to seize something a little more than he had originally put in the table. "Should we put a third rail-head in Aosta into the mix then I think that as we stand would be a little unfair. We would have three ports of entry to the scheme while you would have one. I think we could see fit to add a third in Aosta but only if we were to be extended the rail arrangement to the most populous of your islands. What do you think?"

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Re: The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)
« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2020, 01:08:55 PM »
"Your Highness" Knežević began to explain, "While we are happy to negotiate the islands aren't exactly a place of mass trade. The largest of our islands is Grand Alucard and has a population of less than 3million people, most of them in small towns, the largest town there has less than 300,000 people. Now that means that the port there isn't exactly a huge commercial one. It would be a signficiant investment for us to convert this to have the storage or capacity to do what I think you hope to achieve. Now should you believe that you could accept the size of the port as it is then we can agree to it, if you were expecting some major commercial port and a large market then we can't. Perhaps then it is best to leave it as you initially requested."

Offline Aosta

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Re: The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)
« Reply #8 on: October 20, 2020, 08:52:13 PM »
Lorenzo felt slightly embarrassed, the island looked much bigger and so he had assumed it would have a decent sized market there but clearly now it was just a mere outpost of the Lodjains. He would clearly need to ensure he was better briefed for future meetings. "In the case of what you've just outlined I think we can therefore agree to the first plan we came up with. Therefore as things stand at the moment can we agree to the following."

Quote from: Agreement

The Nations of Lodja and Aosta agree to the formation of the Cross Albion Economic Corridor (CAEC). In this agreement the two nations shall.

1) Connect their freight and passenger rail networks on a route passing East to West across the continent beginning in the West at Ovado before passing through Rayo and terminating in the East at Gaia.

2) Agree a common practice involving rolling stock to ensure transit along this route is as expeditious as possible.

3) Designate a station handling freight at each city identified in Article 1 to be a Free Trade Zone. At these points the following shall apply.

a) Goods certified as being produced in the partnered nation may enter without import duty. To be considered as being produced in a nation a product must have had 75% of its manufacturing process take place in that nation.

b) Goods may be exported with no taxation or fees beyond those normally charged for use of the railway.

c) All goods entering must comply with local rules concerning health and safety.

d) Duties will be chargeable on products if they enter a 3rd nation having first entered the partner nation through one of the designated FTZ.

4) Prior to any other nation being added to the CAEC both Lodja and Aosta must be in full agreement.

Signed________________
Signed________________

"How does this appear?" The Prince asked his guests.

Offline Libby

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Re: The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)
« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2020, 10:54:59 PM »
"This appears to be perfectly fine" Dragan examined the document. "The only condition that I would put to this is that we agree that the cost of ensuring our networks are connected is shared evenly. If you agree to that I would recommend my Queen signs it."

"You heard my Finance Minister Your Highness." Klara picked up a pen and held it ready. "If we have that agreement then I'll affix my signature." 

Offline Aosta

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Re: The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)
« Reply #10 on: November 08, 2020, 06:53:47 PM »
"We have an agreement then."

Quote
The Nations of Lodja and Aosta agree to the formation of the Cross Albion Economic Corridor (CAEC). In this agreement the two nations shall.

1) Connect their freight and passenger rail networks on a route passing East to West across the continent beginning in the West at Ovado before passing through Rayo and terminating in the East at Gaia.

2) Agree a common practice involving rolling stock to ensure transit along this route is as expeditious as possible.

3) Designate a station handling freight at each city identified in Article 1 to be a Free Trade Zone. At these points the following shall apply.

a) Goods certified as being produced in the partnered nation may enter without import duty. To be considered as being produced in a nation a product must have had 75% of its manufacturing process take place in that nation.

b) Goods may be exported with no taxation or fees beyond those normally charged for use of the railway.

c) All goods entering must comply with local rules concerning health and safety.

d) Duties will be chargeable on products if they enter a 3rd nation having first entered the partner nation through one of the designated FTZ.

4) Prior to any other nation being added to the CAEC both Lodja and Aosta must be in full agreement.

Signed: Prince Lorenzo of the Empire of Aosta on behalf of Emperor Franco Tornincasa IV
Signed________________

Offline Libby

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Re: The Cross Albion Economic Railway (Aosta, Lodja & Marseille)
« Reply #11 on: November 23, 2020, 07:03:47 PM »
Quote from: Completed Treaty
The Nations of Lodja and Aosta agree to the formation of the Cross Albion Economic Corridor (CAEC). In this agreement the two nations shall.

1) Connect their freight and passenger rail networks on a route passing East to West across the continent beginning in the West at Ovado before passing through Rayo and terminating in the East at Gaia.

2) Agree a common practice involving rolling stock to ensure transit along this route is as expeditious as possible.

3) Designate a station handling freight at each city identified in Article 1 to be a Free Trade Zone. At these points the following shall apply.

a) Goods certified as being produced in the partnered nation may enter without import duty. To be considered as being produced in a nation a product must have had 75% of its manufacturing process take place in that nation.

b) Goods may be exported with no taxation or fees beyond those normally charged for use of the railway.

c) All goods entering must comply with local rules concerning health and safety.

d) Duties will be chargeable on products if they enter a 3rd nation having first entered the partner nation through one of the designated FTZ.

4) Prior to any other nation being added to the CAEC both Lodja and Aosta must be in full agreement.

Signed: Prince Lorenzo of the Empire of Aosta on behalf of Emperor Franco Tornincasa IV
Signed: Queen Klara II of Lodja.