China-Europe Railway Express"Chang'an Express"
China-Europe Railway Express "Chang'an Express", an international freight train departing from Xi'an, China, is the crux for Xi'an City and Shaanxi Province to promote the development of export-oriented economy. With the strong support of all parties, "Chang'an Express" has developed into China's fastest international freight train with the most lines, the widest coverage and the highest efficiency, injecting strong momentum for Shaanxi to better integrate into "the Belt and Road" Initiative.
On August 11, 2021, an X9041 China-Europe Railway Express (Xi'an) departed from Xi'an International Port Station and headed for Almaty, Kazakhstan, loaded with fabrics, passenger elevators, heaters and other goods. This marks the 10,000th cumulative railway express trips from Shaanxi.
Since 2013 when the first "Chang'an Express" was lunched, the train is going at a higher speed, with 3,720 trips made in 2020 and the total trips exceeding 10,000 this year. The cargo transported by "Chang'an Express" has expanded from drilling equipment at the start to goods of 9 major categories such as textile products, rubber products, electronic products, automobile vehicles and accessories, etc. The railway express now travels along 15 international routes and has reached 44 countries and regions, basically covering all main cargo producers in Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia and Europe. Xi'an International Port Station, the departure station of"Chang'an Express", has also developed from a small fourth-class station with mere 7 lines to a first-class station with 17 arrival and departure lines, 6 shunting lines, 19 cargo lines, 4 loading and unloading lines of container central station and 15 gantry cranes. The annual container throughput can reach up to 900,000 TEUs of containers, an increase of 280.37% in the transportation capacity from 2013.
During the past eight years, "Chang'an Express" has stimulated the development of related areas. With its full-coverage international freight network in Eurasia and the consolidation system in Western Europe,"Chang'an Express" has attracted 29 provinces to collect and distribute goods in Xi'an, radiating the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and other major cargo sources in China. At present, more than 75% of the cargoes transported by Chang'an Express are from other provinces and over 65% of the imported cargoes are distributed from Xi'an to corners in China. Xi'an has become a cargo distribution and transit hub that radiates the whole country and connects Europe and Asia.