A freight train left the Luxembourgish station on Thursday, destination: Chengdu, city of pandas, railways, and the capital of south-western China’s Sichuan province.
From mid-2019 onwards, one train a week will be making the 8000km trek across the globe, passing through Luxembourg, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia before it finally terminates in China.
With a journey time that is only a third of the time it takes by ship and only an eighth of what it costs by plane, it’s a highly attractive development in terms of transport alternatives.
However, the Chinese-German-Luxembourgish partnership did not come easy; beginning the journey in Europe meant more difficulties with regard to loading cargo.
According to Barbara Chevalier, strategic director of CFL Multimodal, this initial test run is an important first step towards further commercial opportunities. 41 containers will be on the move for 2 weeks at a time.
This first freight train sported a wide range of goods, ranging from auto parts, to food, and medicine, establishing whether the goods would withstand the journey.
Video in Luxembourgish:
