China's rail-to-river transit developing

Edited and Translated by People's Daily Online

Beijing, Nov.7 (People's Daily Online) --On Oct. 12, China's Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Railways jointly held a promotion conference for railway-river combined container transportation in Lianyungang at the eastern end of the new Euro-Asian continental bridge.

At the conference, the two ministries signed a cooperation agreement on carrying out the Lianyungang—Ala Mountain Pass railway-river combined container transportation demonstration project.

The first six routes selected for the railway-river combined container transportation demonstration projects include the routes from Dalian to China's northeastern region; from Tianjin to the north and northwest; from Qingdao to Zhengzhou and regions along the Longhai Railway; from Lianyungang to Ala Mountain Pass; from Ningbo to the country's eastern regions, and from Shenzhen to the south and southwest.

Railway-river combined transportation refers to the direct transport of goods between cargo ships and trains, which avoids unnecessary road transportation and reduces intermediate procedure. Furthermore, this transportation model features larger capacity and greater resistance against harsh weather, and thus can greatly increase logistics efficiency.

Railway-river combined container transportation is taking shape along the routes form Dalian and Yingkou ports to China's northeastern area; from Tianjin to the north and northwest, and from Lianyungang and Qingdao to areas along the new Euro-Asian continental bridge. In addition, this transportation model is also gradually expanding along the routes from Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beibu Gulf to the country's eastern, southern and southwestern regions.

China's major ports have extended their combined rail-and-waterway container transportation services to all provincial capitals of central and western regions except for Lhasa, Tibet.