China Railway Xi’an Group Co’s first intermodal service from the Xinzhu terminal to Kyiv in Ukraine set off on July 24, carrying 41 containers of clothing, shoes, socks and other commodities with an expected journey time of 12 days, via Mongolia and Russia.
China State Railway Group reports that 5 122 freight services ran from China to Europe during the first half of 2020, up 36% on the same period in 2019.
Wagga Wagga Council has approved contracts for construction and operation of the Riverina Intermodal Freight & Logistics Hub, to be served by the Inland Rail corridor, on a 60 ha site adjacent to the existing Bomen Business Park. Construction of the 4·9 km of sidings and the intermodal terminal area able to accommodate 1 800 m trains will be undertaken by Canberra-based Huon Contractors, funded by an A$14·4m grant from Transport for NSW’s Fixing Country Rail programme. The terminal will be managed by Visy Logistics under a public private partnership with the council.
A 50-wagon container train carrying more than 3 200 tonnes of coal departed from Haizetan for Enshi in Hubei Province on July 20, China Railway Xi’an Group Co’s first container train for coal transport on the Haolebaoji-Ji’an Railway.
Italian operator EVM Rail has ordered a CZ Loko EffiShunter 1000 locomotive for delivery in October. The contract also includes an option for a second loco.
Norfolk Southern has signed up to Operation Clean Sweep, an initiative developed by the American Chemistry Council and the Plastics Industry Association to prevent the release of microplastics into marine ecosystems. ‘Norfolk Southern will work to achieve zero loss of plastic resin into the environment’, said Chief Marketing Officer Alan Shaw. ‘We are developing an extensive education campaign to raise awareness among our employees and we will increase our scrutiny to make sure the hopper cars we transport are properly secured and sealed. Freight rail plays an important role in the chemical and plastics industry, and with that comes a duty to support the industry in its efforts to promote environmental responsibility.’
U-Freight Group has opened a second Chinese consolidation centre at its logistics hub in Shanghai, adding to its Zhengzhou location following a spike in less than container load traffic to Europe as shippers switch from air and sea. ‘As an early adopter of this routing option, we have developed a strong position in the market’, said CEO Simon Wong. ‘We now handle significant consol shipments from China to Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands in particular, as well as smaller volumes to other European countries, handled by our network of long-standing agents once the shipments arrive at the three rail freight hubs on the European mainland. While other transport modes still face significant capacity and schedule issues, our overland rail freight service is clearly demonstrating that it offers a competitive alternative to air freight in regards to price, and considerably faster transit times compared to the ocean freight alternative.’
Davies Turner now offers Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester as destinations for its rail and rail deliveries from China to the UK. ‘Since the direct service recommenced in March, we have seen three to four 40ft High Cube containers arriving every week direct into our Dartford freight hub’, said Tony Cole, Head of Supply Chain Services. ‘We have identified many of the shipments are for distribution to other parts of the UK, so we are now working with our partners in China to refine the consolidation process at Hefei, and to ensure that shipments destined for the southwest, Midlands or northwest are consolidated in the same container.’
