SHENYANG, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- The China-Europe freight train service passed 140,000 cumulative trips on Thursday, a milestone that underscores its role as a reliable logistics corridor for Eurasian trade, especially as geopolitical tensions and disruptions to traditional shipping routes challenge global supply chains.
The milestone was marked as a train bound for Moscow departed Puhe station in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, at around 11:30 a.m. Thursday. The value of goods transported by the China-Europe freight train service has exceeded 560 billion U.S. dollars since 2011.
The figures reflect that Eurasia's overland corridor has shifted from a niche alternative to a mainstay of regional logistics. This shift is seen not merely in the number of trains, but in what they carry, their destinations, and the reliability of their arrivals.
The growth has been steady rather than sudden. Annual trips rose from 1,702 in 2016 to 20,022 in 2025, an average annual increase of more than 30 percent, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
As a flagship project and a landmark brand of the Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Europe freight train service, also referred to as the "steel camel caravans," has established a comprehensive logistics network across Eurasia.
The expansion has come as geopolitical tensions, disruptions to maritime routes and high air freight costs pushed more trade firms to look for stable and efficient transport channels. Rail freight costs roughly one-fifth of air transport and takes about one-quarter of the time of sea transport, and it is less exposed to weather and to disruption on traditional maritime routes, according to the NDRC.
The network has broadened in step. Within China, 96 scheduled routes for trains traveling at 120 km per hour link 132 cities along the western, central and eastern corridors, while overseas the network runs on three lines: northern, central and southern.
The overseas routes now reach 237 cities in 26 European countries and more than 100 cities in 12 Asian countries, covering most parts of Eurasia, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway), the national rail operator.
The southern route shows where that demand is going. Operating on a regular basis, it ran 746 trains in the first nine months of 2026, up 125 percent year on year, far faster than the network as a whole. Regular service linking the Chinese city of Xi'an with Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, began in July 2024, and one such service traverses Central Asia and crosses the Caspian Sea before continuing to Europe either via the overland railway network or by crossing the Black Sea.
The reach extends outward as much as inward. Shuai Bin, a professor at the School of Transportation and Logistics at Southwest Jiaotong University, said the service "has drawn global resources and production factors further into inland regions, while fostering a new pattern of opening up featuring highly-coordinated development between coastal ports and inland hubs."
On the European side, Duisburg alone handles about 30 percent of China-Europe rail freight volume, according to Markus Teuber, the German city's China affairs commissioner.
The range of goods that move along those lines has expanded even faster. Goods now span 53 categories and more than 50,000 items. In the first quarter of 2026, mechanical equipment remained the largest category on outbound trips, followed by automobiles and auto parts. Exports of automobiles and auto parts rose 46 percent year on year, while inbound grains, wood pulp and rubber products climbed 87 percent, 64 percent and 24 percent respectively, data released by China Railway in April showed.
According to the operator, the loaded container rate on the return leg had held at 100 percent for 49 consecutive months as of September.
"The rising share of return services shows the China-Europe freight trains are shifting from one-way exports to a healthier, two-way trade corridor, helping make Eurasian trade more balanced and sustainable," Sun Zhang, a professor at Tongji University, was quoted by the Global Times as saying.
Carrying that cargo reliably is harder than finding it, and reliability rather than speed has now become a primary gauge of the service. Trains running on fixed timetables, with designated numbers, routes and crossing times agreed across borders, cut transit time by about a quarter, and the journey from Xi'an to Duisburg takes as little as 11 days, down from 15. Some 22 such services now link nine Chinese and six European cities, and the average value of a single container is 41 percent higher than on regular trains, according to the NDRC.
China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) calls for upgrading the service, and the NDRC has said it will improve transport organization, open more alternative routes and deepen coordination with countries along the corridor.
An official with the logistics center of China Railway said the operator has been advancing infrastructure connectivity and the alignment of standards and rules to build a smooth, efficient, multi-directional network that connects rails with sea routes. ■
