At 2:45 a.m. on December 5, a China-Europe Railway Express train loaded with mechanical equipment, cashmere products, furniture and other goods departed from Shijiazhuang International Land Port, marking the official launch of the first full timetable China-Europe Railway Express service in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The train adopts a “fixed departure point, fixed route, fixed schedule and fixed train number” operating model, enabling freight trains to achieve passenger-train-like punctuality.
The train is one of the fourth batch of full timetable China-Europe Railway Express routes released by China Railway Group in November. Starting from December 5, the service will operate regularly every Friday, departing through the Erenhot border port and arriving in Warsaw, Poland. The total transportation time is fixed at 14 days and 3 hours, with further distribution available to major European logistics hubs including Budapest, Duisburg and Hamburg.
The key advantage of the full timetable China-Europe Railway Express lies in the integration of operating schedules across the China section, broad-gauge railway section and European railway section. Through fixed train numbers, routes, schedules and operating times, the service effectively controls operational procedures such as border transshipment and handover, significantly improving transportation efficiency and reliability. Liu Jinping, General Manager of Shijiazhuang International Land Port, stated that this model improves overall transport efficiency by more than 30% compared with conventional China-Europe Railway Express services. It also enables efficient connection between high-speed cross-border rail transportation and overseas warehouses in Europe, providing more stable and reliable supply chain solutions for enterprises in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region while further enhancing Shijiazhuang International Land Port’s role as a new hub for inland opening-up.
Since the beginning of this year, the China-Europe Railway Express (Shijiazhuang) service has continued to expand. In the first 11 months, more than 1,100 trains were operated, transporting over 115,000 TEUs with a cargo weight exceeding 1.4 million tons. Shijiazhuang has become the first China-Europe Railway Express hub platform in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to exceed 1,000 annual train operations. The launch of the full timetable service will further support stable and high-quality foreign trade development, help enterprises reduce logistics costs and improve efficiency, and contribute to a higher level of international connectivity.
