Accelerating China-Europe freight trains boost Belt and Road trade

An aerial drone photo taken on Nov. 17, 2025 shows a China-Europe freight train departing from the Xi'an International Port Station in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. (Xinhua/Shao Rui)

XI'AN, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- In the early winter at Xi'an International Port Station, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the roar of locomotives and the bustle of cranes paint a vivid picture of connectivity. The X9043 China-Europe freight train departed for Baku, Azerbaijan, laden with auto parts, photovoltaic modules, and e-commerce goods, a testament to the "steel camel fleet" that fuels cross-continental trade.

According to the latest statistics from China State Railway Group, from January to October, the China-Europe freight express (Xi'an) operated 5,063 train trips, a 16.3 percent year-on-year increase, setting a record high for the period, with key indicators such as freight volume and load efficiency leading the nation.

The acceleration is evident in every operational detail. "Now drivers can pass the smart gate in just 15 seconds, allowing me to make five or six trips a day, much more efficient than before," said Ren Jiayuan, a container truck driver at the port.

This efficiency stems from an intelligent system leveraging IoT, big data, and AI for real-time monitoring and scheduling of vehicles and cargo handling.

Li Shiguang, director of Xi'an International Port Station, noted that smart applications have boosted train assembly and distribution efficiency by 52.9 percent while cutting return costs by 20 percent. This year, daily loading volumes have repeatedly hit new highs, peaking at a record 28 trains departed in a single day.

Channel expansion is also accelerating. Beyond the 18 regular international routes, September saw the launch of Xi'an's first cross-Baltic Sea rail-sea intermodal service, compressing transit time to 17 days and opening new pathways for Chinese products. Simultaneously, the trans-Caspian "rail-sea-rail" corridor has slashed travel time to as little as 11 days.

Domestically, China Railway Xi'an Group operates six coastal rail-sea intermodal routes and seven distribution lines. At the same time, internationally, China-Kazakhstan "hub-to-hub" cooperation has cut border transfer time from two to three days to just three hours.

The boom is reshaping regional economies. Liu Dongmeng, Party secretary of Xi'an Aiju Grain and Oil Industry Group, said that leveraging the convenience of China-Europe freight train service, the company has built processing plants in Kazakhstan and imported nearly 100,000 tonnes of feed wheat flour this year.

"Door-to-door transport eliminates truck transfers, greatly improving efficiency," he said.

At Xi'an International Port Station, northwest China's largest timber base and construction material distribution center has taken shape. Auto firms such as Shaanxi Auto, BYD, and Geely are riding the rails overseas. In the first half of 2025, 300,000 vehicles were shipped, with 112,000 sold abroad, reducing logistics costs by over 8 percent.

Qi Chao, deputy section chief of multimodal transport at the freight department of China Railway Xi'an Group, said optimized services and a more comprehensive network will be provided for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.