From Xi’an to Sławków in 11 days a reality
The Polish Euroterminal Sławków is celebrating the arrival of the first 1,000-metre-long freight train that travelled the 9,477-kilometre distance from China in eleven days. A new world record. Last saturday it delivered 50 containers from the Chinese city of Xi’an.
Euroterminal Sławków is an intermodal facility on the western terminus of the Polish broad-gauge Metallurgy Line. The train that arrived on the 1st of February is the second rail delivery from Xi’an to Sławków so far. According to railcompany PKP LHS at least two records have been set. Euroterminal Sławków got 50 containers in one shipment and only in 11 days. The first delivery from Xi’an to Sławków was performed in 12 days at the beginning of the year. So far railfreight from China and especially from Xi’an is not effected by the travelling restrictions because of the outbreak of the coronavirus.
After transhipment at Euroterminal Sławków, an intermodal facility jointly owned by Grupa CZH, PKP LHS and PKP Cargo, the containers from Xi’an will head to the final customers by road or rail. Some containers are bound for the Port of Gdańsk where they will be loaded on vessels for delivery to Scandinavia.
Growing interest
“We note a growing interest by freight forwarders and exporters for this connection,” said Dariusz Sikora, PKP LHS’s boardmember for trade and operation. That’s because Euroterminal Sławków is situated at a convenient location in southern Poland. It is close to the country’s important economic and logistics centres such as Katowice (25 kilometres eastwards) and Kraków (60 kilometres southeastwards). Moreover, the intermodal terminal could be a gateway for the connections to the nearby Czechia (Ostrava) and Slovakia (Žilina).
Polish railways expect that the Xi’an – Sławków train will become a new impetus for the Metallurgy Line. “In 2018, the value of imports from China to Poland amounted to 31 billion US dollars. If only 1 per cent of these goods run through Sławków, it will be an impulse for PKP LHS and the entire region to further develop,” noted Mirosław Antonowicz, boardmember of the Polish state railway holding PKP S.A. at the welcome ceremony for the first Chinese train to Sławków.
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