The 2000th container train set off on the Chengdu-Europe route

The 2,000th container train set off on Thursday along the route connecting Chengdu, the provincial capital of southwest China’s Sichuan Province, with Europe. The train, loaded with liquid crystal displays, laptops and other electronics, is due to arrive in Tilburg, a city in the south of the Netherlands, in 14 days.
Container trains from Chengdu to Europe started running in 2013. At the moment, this is the most stable route of all container transportation routes between China and Europe in terms of frequency of departures (at least three trains depart daily) and is also the shortest route in terms of travel time, the administration of the Chengdu International Railway Port reports.
In 2017, 1012 trains connecting Chengdu with such European cities as Lodz /Poland/, Tilburg, German Nuremberg, Moscow, as well as Minsk, Prague, Milan and Vienna were dispatched. A transport network, interconnecting 14 Chinese and 16 foreign cities by the Chengdu-Europe railway route. In fact, this network turned Chengdu into a connecting bridge between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
As noted, today Chengdu accounts for a quarter of all container trains that go from China to Europe, as well as for a quarter of cost and volume of goods transported in this direction.
The railway port administration gave a positive assessment of the container railway transportation role in the development of foreign trade in Sichuan and other western regions of China. In recent years, Sichuan trade turnover with countries situated along the «Belt and Road» route has reportedly grown by almost 80%.
Image source: rossaprimavera.ru