This drone aerial photo taken on August 1, 2024, shows a China-Europe freight train departing from the Hefei North Railway Station logistics hub in Hefei city, east China's Anhui province. A total of 380 China-Europe freight trains departed from Hefei city from January to July this year, up 3 percent from the previous year. Photo: Xinhua
China-Europe freight trains, the backbone of transcontinental transportation, maintained steady growth, with the number of trips increasing 12 percent year-on-year from January to July, China Railway said on Sunday, providing new impetus for the stabilization of the East-West supply chain.
Traders and rail service operators said the continued upgrading and standardisation of cross-border rail services, including improving competitiveness compared to sea transport and implementing a full-time operating schedule, was crucial to the growth of their businesses.
A total of 11,403 trains ran from January to July, up 12 percent from a year earlier. Trains carried 1.22 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers, up 11 percent from a year earlier, data released by China Railway on Sunday showed.
In July alone, 1,776 freight trains operated between China and Europe, marking the third consecutive month with more than 1,700 trains running.
Tommy Tang, president of Shanghai EPU Supply Chain Management Co., has witnessed firsthand how rail service upgrades have transformed his company's business this year.
“Our business through China-Europe freight trains has grown about 5 percent so far this year,” Tang told the Global Times on Sunday, expressing optimism about train services this year.
Tan's company uses the train to serve several European cities, including Lyon in France and Budapest in Hungary.
The growth of freight trains between China and Europe is mainly due to improved services such as full-time operations, which industry insiders say make rail transport more competitive than sea routes that require longer detours due to the ongoing Red Sea crisis.
Unlike the previous model, where local rail departments set their own operating times individually, a full-time schedule means that each section has fixed arrival and departure times, as well as fixed routes.
Since the third complete timetable for China-Europe freight train services was implemented in mid-June, the scale of operations has been expanding. According to China Railway, there are currently 17 trains in operation per week, connecting major trading hubs such as Chengdu in southwest China and Guangzhou in southern China with Duisburg in Germany and Lodz in Poland, and operating on a passenger train-like timetable ensures transport efficiency.
Gao Hongjin, president of Ulanqab Foreign Economic and Trade Cooperation, Investment and Development Company, told the Global Times on Sunday that train operation efficiency had improved year-on-year and costs had been reduced.
The service continues to expand: On Friday, a train carrying 110 standard containers of home appliances left Kisumu in Uranqab, northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and passed through Erenhot, crossing into Mongolia and on to Nizhnekamsk in Russia, according to Jining Customs. The start of the journey highlights growing regional connections.
Gao said freight trains between China and Europe from Erenhot are currently operating at full capacity, showing great potential for growth, and predicted that the freight train business will continue to boom.
