Freight train departures on meter-gauge railway exceed 3,000

The meter-gauge railway between Kaiyuan, south Yunnan to Haiphong, Vietnam witnessed 3,003 China-Asia freight trains that transported a total of 1,200,000 metric tons of cross-border goods as of May 30, announced China Railway Kunming Group.

The railway, whose operation had been suspended temporarily during COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, quickly resumed services to boost bilateral cooperation. Since the China-Vietnam international freight service was launched in 2017, it facilitated the import of 606,000 tons of sulphur and the export of 568,000 chemical fertilizers.

Extending northward to connect Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan Province, the railway is the fastest and easiest channel for southwestern Chinese provinces to trade with the counties of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and other Asean members via land-sea traffic.

Officers from the China Railway Kunming Group said the China-Asia freight train has fixed loading positions, routes, train numbers, time of departure and arrival, and price. These helped the railway-connected countries ensure uninterrupted operations.

Source: Yunnan Daily and Global Times; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue