Chengdu to run 1,000 freight trains to Europe

Chengdu will soon have closer ties with Europe, as the number of freight trains running between the two is expected to reach 1,000 in 2017, compared with 460 in 2016, according to the Chengdu International Railway Services Company, Xinhua reported.

Chengdu was the Chinese city with the largest number of freight trains travelling to Europe in 2016.

Chengdu has planned three major freight train services to Europe, with a middle route to Germany, Poland and the Netherlands, a southern route to Turkey and beyond and a northern route to Russia.

Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan Province, will add two new routes to Istanbul and Moscow this year.

The company ran test trains on the two new routes last year, said Fan Jun, president of the company. It takes about 16 days to reach Istanbul and 10 days to Moscow. The number of trains heading to the two cities from Chengdu this year will be 200 and 150, respectively.

Chengdu launched its first freight train to Lodz, Poland, about four years ago. The trip takes less than 11 days now. This line was extended to Tilburg, the Netherlands, and Nuremburg, Germany. According to the company’s plan, the number of trains running on the line will be 650 this year.

Chengdu transported a total of 73,000 tons of cargos at the worth of US$1.56 billion to foreign countries in 2016.