China-Europe freight trains lead countries onto fast track of win-win cooperation

Photo/Xinhua
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The number of China-Europe freight train trips in 2022 has reached 10,000 on Sunday, 21 August, 10 days earlier than last year, data from the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. showed.

Offering a reliable channel for trade and economic cooperation, especially during the pandemic, the flagship project for interconnectivity has enhanced regional opening-up, expanded economic and trade exchanges, and improved people’s well-being in countries along the routes.

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Prominent figures

Starting operations in 2011, the China-Europe freight train services have witnessed booming development, especially since the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. It has established a new logistics channel between Asia and Europe that operates around the clock.

Total annual train trips surged from 1,702 in 2016 to 15,183 last year, official figures showed.

With 82 routes reaching Europe, the trains now reach 196 cities in 24 European countries, transporting more than 50,000 types of goods.

China has made solid efforts to increase the transport capacity of the trains by upgrading domestic transport channels and coordinating infrastructure improvements with overseas railways.

In 2022, the average daily freight volume on the eastern route for the China-Europe freight train services surged 41.3 percent from 2020, and that of the western and central routes rose 20.7 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively.

By the end of July, the total number of train trips had surpassed 57,000, with shipments of 5.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units of goods worth nearly 300 billion U.S. dollars.

With such a large carrying capacity, the green, low-carbon and safe train service has become “a passage of life” amid the pandemic.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, some 109,000 tons of anti-pandemic products had been sent to Europe through the train service as of the end of July. While sea and air transportation were hit hard, it effectively guaranteed the stability of international industrial and supply chains.

Moreover, the train trip only costs one-fifth of air transportation and takes a quarter of the time required by shipping.

Source: english.news.cn