Within the next few months, a new container train service linking Germany and China run by German train operator, Deutsche Bahn along with DB Schenker, DB’s transportation and logistics service provider, will be up and running. The Trans Eurasia Express will provide a weekly rail service in both directions between Shanghai/Beijing and cover the more than 10,000-kilometer long land route in less than 20 days, crossing five national borders, six time zones and seven climatic zones to German destinations of Hamburg, Nuremberg and Duisburg.

“With the Trans Eurasia Express, we are offering our customers an attractive supplement to ocean freight, which is much slower, and to air freight, which is much more expensive: with the introduction of the regular timetable and fixed departure times, this new link in our global network will enable us to offer a new level of quality in the trans-continental exchange of goods between the economic centers,” says Dr. Norbert Bensel, head of DB Schenker and the member of the Management Board of DB ML AG responsible for the Transportation and Logistics Division.

“DB Schenker has strong global networks and high-capacity distribution networks in Europe and Asia. The Trans Eurasia Express gives us an additional link in our global network – and it also reinforces our technology leadership at international level.”

The main focus for the future is on sending container shipments to and from the CIS states and Asia across the Eurasian Landbridge. In addition to weekly block trains running between China and Europe, other services are planned between Europe and the CIS states, the CIS states and China, and between Western China and the Baltic states. The trains will operate as block trains for individual customers (company trains) or as block trains for many customers (public trains).