A new rail freight service Xi-an-Rotterdam was launched this Sunday, 16 August. It is an extension of the Xi’an-Mukran service, which was already operated. The freight train connects the Chinese hub to the largest European port in just sixteen days.

This was announced by Beijing Transport Eurasia (BTE). The service will run every Sunday in this direction and is thereby a regular service. “The train runs via Kaliningrad”, said Wanxu Dong, Managing Director of BTE. Kaliningrad is a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania. Freight trains regularly run via this route to avoid the busy border crossing between Poland and Belarus (Malaszewicze-Brest).

Train to Rotterdam

It is not the first service to reach Rotterdam via the Kaliningrad route. In November last year, the Rotterdam-Chengdu multimodal route via the port of Kaliningrad was established for container transportation between Europe and China.

Rotterdam is also a stop on the Chengdu Europe Rail Express. This is a cooperation between several parties, to extend the regular Chengu-Tilburg service with shuttle trains to the port of Rotterdam.