On July 1, a China-Europe freight train loaded with 55 vehicles of LED display screens, power inverters and gearbox control modules slowly left Xi’an International Port Station and headed west to Duisburg, Germany. From July 1st, the operation plan of the China-Europe (Xi’an-Duisburg) fixed-schedule trains increase from once per week to twice per week. The trains start running every Wednesday and Saturday. The transportation capacity can be doubled, when the transit time keeps unchanged.

The freight trains running between China and European countries have to go through railways of different gauges.  The whole journey can be divided into the Chinese section, the wide gauge section and the European section. When the trains arrive at the border ports of these sections, the containers must be reloaded for continuous operation. Since there were no requirements on the time of the reloading operation, it was impossible to achieve a fast and smooth handover, which affected the overall transit efficiency of the China-Europe freight trains.

In order to better meet the logistics needs of customers, the railway departments of countries along the transport routes started to organize the operation of freight trains with full-time schedule since October last year, and specially between in Xi’an, China and Duisburg, Germany. The trains from Xi’an to Duisburg runs on a regular basis every Wednesday.

At the same time, a test train with fixed-schedule from Duisburg to Xi’an has been put into operation. The first eastbound fixed-schedule train departed from Duisburg on June 27 and is expected to arrive at Xi’an International Port on July 9, with a transit time of about 11 to 12 days.