 | China and Germany launch city-to-city rail freight service 10-01-2008 The railways of Germany and China are planning to launch direct freight rail
links between the two countries major cities. The first such link will be
between Beijing and Hamburg. On 8 January, the first train left the Chinese
capital for the German port city. Loaded with containers, the train will travel
Beijing through the Mongolian Republic, along the Trans-Siberian Railroad,
through Belarus and Poland and then to Hamburg.
On arriving at its destination in just under 20 days, the train will have
traveled more than 10,000 kilometers. Germany’s railway (Deutsche Bahn),
cooperates with five other rail companies on this project: the Russian and
Chinese Railways as well as the national railroads of Mongolia, Poland and
Belarus. The six rail companies intend to develop competitive offerings to gain
market shares from ocean- and airfreight. The booming economies in Asia and the
upswing in Russia have lent further importance to the Asian-European transport
corridor.
A Deutsche Bahn spokesman told City Mayors’ China correspondent that the
company was aiming to achieve a journey time of 15 to 18 days in the future.
“That's twice as fast as a seagoing vessel from Germany to China and Asia. At
the same time, we're considerably cheaper than air freight for many types of
cargo,” he added. At a time when the environmental impact of large container
ships come increasingly under scrutiny, long-distance rail transport is seen as
a more ecological alternative.
Source: City Mayors
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