Kazakhstan, Belarus, Poland, Germany and France. Those countries have recently been traversed by a Chinese train called Yuxinou. Connecting China to Spain, the convoy aims to install a commercial transport railway line as a new alternative to maritime cargo.
Yuxinou just travelled 10,000 kilometres in 21 days. This cargo train left Yiwu, close to Shanghai and crossed seven countries to get to Madrid. In addition to breaking the record of the trip in the longest train, the convoy of 82 containers was used to test an alternative mode of transport to maritime cargo.
The project should be conclusive as railroads connections are faster, can deserve several countries and are less polluting than cargo ships.
However, The link Yiwu-Madrid, also known as “New Silk Road“, remains 20% more expensive than shipping (but still less than air cargo). The Chinese government wants to multiply Europe-China lines to reduce costs.
Right from its first return, Yuxinou will bring cars and luxury goods. China now thinks already at the development of high-speed connections to Germany and the UK…