The China-Europe freight railway service, which recently completed its 90,000.th journey, has facilitated cargo transport and enhanced trade and communication channels between China ad European countries.
China State Railway Group, operator of the service said that since the service began in 2011, it has transported more 8.7 million containers containing goods worth more than $380 billion (PS297billion) in value.
In just 13 years, the China-Europe freight trains, also known as “steel camel caravans”, have achieved these remarkable feats.
It took 13 years for the first camel caravan from China to Europe, led by the Chinese imperial ambassador Zhang Qian.
Zhang Qian began his expedition in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, over 2,000 years ago. He travelled thousands of miles to the west, crossing what is now the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and several nations in Central Asia. This expedition laid the groundwork for the Silk Road and the dawning of links between East and West.
Many merchants, travellers and their camel caravans followed in his footsteps. They played a crucial role in advancing the human civilisation by facilitating trade and cultural interchanges between China, Europe and Asia.
In 2013, China, inspired by Zhang Qian’s historic journey and the success of the Silk Road in general, proposed the Belt and Road Initiative — a modern version of the Silk Road that aims to enhance communication between East and West.
The China-Europe freight trains service is one of the most notable achievements of this initiative.
The rapid growth of this service, which began with a few dozen trips and now exceeds 17,000 per year, demonstrates the growing market demand for a reliable and cost-effective mode of transportation compared to air and sea routes.
This growth has been especially pronounced since 2016.
The number of China-Europe freight trains increased from 1,702 in 2016 to over 17,000 last year. This is a tenfold growth with an average annual rate of 39.5%.
The value of goods transported annually by the service has risen from $8 billion (PS6.3billion) in 2016 up to $56.7billion (PS44.3billion) last year.
The China-Europe freight trains service connects 223 cities across 25 European countries and more than 100 cities throughout Asia.
Shao Boer is the general manager of Xi’an International Inland Port Multimodal Transportation. His company, based in Xi’an said that it was heavily reliant upon the China-Europe Freight Train service.
He praised the introduction of a fixed-scheduled service by October 2022. “The set-scheduled services, in my opinion is a landmark development in the China-Europe rail service, as it represents a transition from a gradual quantitative evolution to qualitative change.”
The set-scheduled freight trains adhere to a strict timetable along the entire route. This results in reduced transportation times, and improved service predictability.
He said that the entire journey timetable was like a “freight train”, arriving at each station and city in each country according to schedule. “This is why the train runs so fast,” he said.
The fixed-scheduled service significantly reduced transit times. A journey from Xi’an, China to Duisburg in Germany now takes only 12 days.
Five scheduled services from Xi’an, Sichuan Province, to Duisburg and Lodz, Poland have already been launched, reducing travel time by 30% compared to regular China-Europe freight trains.
The service has also been made faster through the cooperation with the Customs Department.
“To improve the efficiency of customs clearance, Horgos Customs has set up a duty post that is open 24 hours a day at the station. This will allow for immediate inspections when a train arrives, accelerating the release process,” Zhao Yuanfeng, from Horgos Customs, in Xinjiang, said.
It means that the train can be inspected and released as quickly as possible, no matter what time it arrives at the border station.