Container Train Service Between Asia And Europe

Instead of long sea journeys lasting many weeks between Asia and key ports such as Hamburg Rotterdam and Felixstowe, in 2010 containers could make the journey in under two weeks by train. In 2008, trains hauling containers between China and markets in the EU were trialed by German railroad Deutsche Bahn (DB) to consider the viability of serving Australasian shippers and freight forwarders who want a faster container service than traditional ships can provide.

Promoters accept that the sheer scale of the traffic flows between the two blocs mean that rail will only take a minor share of the millions of containers travelling between the two regions; following the successful test run of a fully-loaded container train from Beijing to Hamburg, it only requires certain technical and bureaucratic hurdles to be overcome for the service to operate.

Aside from the technical issues, planners of the 10,000km train journey have to decide whether there is significant demand from shippers and forwarders who want to select a third option between expensive but quick air freighting or slower but lower cost seaborne transport.

When the test train, branded the Beijing-Hamburg Container Express, arrived in Hamburg at the end of January, 2008 it had completed a 15-day, 9,954km journey from Beijing through Mongolia, Russia, Belarus and Poland. The service served as a demonstration of the Eurasian Land Bridge project jointly proposed by six national rail operators.

The train departed from Beijing’s Dahunmen Station in early January and consisted of 49 flat cars handling 98 containers. The rail journey took 15 days and the train arrived in Hamburg almost 20 hours ahead of schedule. This would contrast with a typical journey to Europe of around 40 days by sea.

In fact, six months after the test train, in September 2008 a container train carrying fifty containers of Fujiusu Siemens IT products left Xiangtang in China for the seventeen day to Hamburg in Germany. Crossing the Russian border near Irkutsk through Novosibirsk, Omsk and Ekaterinburg to Moscow and then through Belarus and Poland to arrive in Hamburg on October 6th.

On arrival in Hamburg, the fifty containers were forwarded in two directions: the monitors continued by train to Fujitsu Siemens’ European distribution centre in Worms and the chassis were taken directly to the assembly plant in Augsburg.

Significant Gauge Breaks Faced

During the trial run, the train travelled via the Trans-Siberian Railroad line and passed over the rails of China, Mongolia (MR), Russia (RZD), Belarus (BCh), and Poland (PKP Cargo) on its way to Germany. After leaving China, the train traversed the Gobi Desert.

More significantly for the logistics of the operation, during its journey the train faced two significant gauge breaks. The first occurred at the Chinese-Mongolian border at Erlianhot/Zamyn Ude where the China Railway’s standard gauge (1,435 mm) meets the Russian broad gauge (1,520 mm). The second occurred at the border between Belarus and Poland at Brest/Malaszewicze where it returned to standard gauge.

The equipment used is not pooled so containers had to be handled on to new flatcars with the appropriate wheel gauge. In addition locomotives and train drivers were not in a pool and took the train on their own domestic leg of the journey. The train originally carried 49 flat cars but had to be divided in Brest because it was too long for operation on the German railway network.

Railroad Employees Co-Operation Praised

Speaking at the time of the trial run, DB chairman Hartmut Hehdorn, said: “The excellent co-operation between the railroad employees of the six participating companies is impressive proof that Asian-European freight transport along the Eurasian Land Bridge has a future.

“If we can overcome further technical and bureaucratic hurdles and upgrade the infrastructure, and if the demand for transport services from Europe to Asia also grows, by the end of the decade we can aim at launching regular freight transport services along this axis.”

The cargo on the trial Beijing-Hamburg run included consumer electronic equipment, clothing and shoes.

One of the barriers to the project identified by DB is that, in comparison to ocean freight, rail transport is burdened by price disadvantages caused by additional costs for positioning and leasing containers as well as by running costs for empty, backhaul freight cars; this contrasts with ships who are able to move full containers in both directions while at sea. There is relative little freight from Europe to Asia.

There is also a need to expand the capacities of the regauging facilities at the Sino-Russian border for the long-term viability of the service.

Over to Chinese Exporters

The service will targets goods originating in western and northern China that require long shipping times within China to reach seaports where they are transferred to ships; secondly goods that have to be shipped quickly but at less cost than airfreight.

This category includes special sales goods for the clothing industry, electronic goods, as well as project deals for the machinery and plant construction business; and thirdly, goods that can be shipped via the Eurasian Land Bridge instead of air or ocean freight in order to eliminate bottlenecks in the delivery chain or to secure long-term supplier loyalty in supply chains.

This service was planned when world trade was booming: ship rates were booming and capacity on container ships to Europe was tight. Now rates are lower and many ships are sailing at less than full capacity.

The price advantage might have disappeared in the short to medium term but the journey time advantage remains: the quicker time taken overland can free up the cash in the cargo much sooner than by sea. Now it is over to Chinese exporters to fill the containers next year.