China-Madrid Freight Train Route
The new China-Madrid freight train route is now the longest direct freight train route in the world.
The freight train convoy left the city of Yuva on the east coast of China and arrived at Madrid Spain, twenty one days later. The convoy travelled 13,000 kilometers.
The convoy pulled a gross weight of 1,400 tons and switched engines every 800 kilometers. The convoy also had to deal with track changes at the bordertowns of Dostyk in Kazakhstan, Brest in Belarus, and Irun in Spain.
Chinese officials emphasized how this new fright delivery train would not only reduce import and export costs, and delivery times, but it woud also lower CO2 emissions compared to trucking the goods by road.
This new train route is longer than the combined train routes of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Orient Express which measures 12, 250 kilometers. This route also covers the most countries. The route travels through China, Kazhakstan, Rssia, Belarus, Poland, Germany and France before reaching Spain.
Spain and China want to promote trade relations through rail transport.
This new direct railway line is a major international link between Europe and Asia.
“The European Union is currently China’s largest trade partner. Spain
is China’s seventh largest trade partner within the European Union”, said Huang Yazhong, the business attache of the Chinese Embassy. “The volume of bilateral trade in 2013 reached 24.9 billion dollars.”
The frieght train unloaded the 30 remaining containers at the Spanish railway facilities in Marid after already unloading 40 containers in Belarus.
