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The first direct freight train between China and Spain arrived at the Mendez Alvaro logistics centre in Madrid on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

First freight train from China arrives in Spain after 13,000km test run

AFP

The first freight train to link China directly to Spain arrived in Madrid on Tuesday after covering more than 13,000km in a test run of a planned regular service.

The train left Yiwu, a major wholesale centre for small consumer goods, in eastern China on November 18 and passed through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, and France during its 21-day trip.

It is the longest railway route in the world, longer still than Russia’s famous Trans-Siberian railway linking Moscow to Vladivostok.

The journey time was more than 10 days shorter than if the goods transported by the train had been shipped by sea, Spain’s public works ministry said.

The train’s 40 shipping containers transported goods made in Zhejiang province, including spinning tops for children and cutting tools. The train will return to China with wine, olive oil and cured ham.

Speaking a ceremony in Madrid, Zhejiang governor Li Qiang said the route was important to “implement the strategy of developing a new silk road”.

China has a regular direct freight train service to Germany, Europe’s largest economy.

One route links Chongqing to Duisburg, a steel-making town and one of Germany’s most-important transportation and commercial hubs.

Another links Beijing to Hamburg, Germany’s second-largest city.

The plan was to create a similar regular route between China and Spain, Spanish Public Works Minister Ana Pastor said after the train arrived at a logistics centre near Madrid’s main railway station.

The Spanish capital was already “a European and international distribution hub” with good links to both Africa and Latin America, she said.

Euro Cargo Rail, a subsidiary of German freight operator DB Shenker Rail, is studying the possibility of starting a regular service between China and Spain during the first half of next year, with two trips a month.

Roughly 80 per cent of global trade is carried by ships as freight train services face several technical and bureaucratic hurdles, which vary according to country.

The goods on the train which arrived in Madrid, for example, had to be transferred to different wagons at three points during the trip because of incompatible track gauges in different countries.

But rail transport is less expensive, more environmentally friendly and faster than maritime shipping, according to DB Shenker Rail.

China is the European Union’s biggest source of imports, according to the European Commission.

 

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