Fastest China-Europe train sets record time of 10.5 days

The 300th China Railway Express leaves Chengdu, Sichuan Province to Poland on June 8. China Railway Corp. officially adopts the CHINA RAILWAY Express brand and launches eight trains from Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, Suzhou, Dongguan, and Yiwu to Europe on the same day. All cargo trains from China to Europe will use this new logo.[Photo/Xinhua]

CHENGDU -- Container trains from China's Chengdu, Sichuan Province, to Europe will take only ten-and-a-half days to complete a one-way trip, the fastest among China-Europe trains.

The 41 trans-continent carriages departed the Southwest China city on June 8 wearing the newly-launched unified logo for China-Europe freights, the "China Railway Express" or "CR Express".

CR Express trains also departed from Wuhan, Suzhou, Changsha, Dongguan, Yiwu, and Chongqing to Europe on the same day, covering central and south parts of China.

Besides speeding up and shrink the total time range to ten-and-a-half days, the container trains from Chengdu to Poland, the Netherlands and Germany have also increased their frequencies from weekly to daily plus four return trains each week.

According to statistics, the Chengdu station has departed 300 container trains since its launch in 2013 and has delivered 24,600 standard containers with 38,700 tons of freights valued $1 billion. The Chengdu CR Express plans 400 trips from China to Europe in 2016 and the number is expected to reach 1,000 in 2017.

The unified use of the CR Express logo indicates a tight regulation and management of brand construction, usage and publication, said a relevant executive of China Railway Corp, major carrier of CR Express.

Railway freightage will be equivalent to that of ocean freight in the future, which will grant residents in Chengdu, Poland, and Germany cheaper and richer imported commodities.

Chengdu will extend routes to coastal cities of China and to European cities such as Nuremburg in Germany and Tilburg in the Netherlands, according to an insider of the Chengdu Logistics Office.