The new multimodal service commenced on 13 April. It crosses the Caspian and Black Seas, passing through Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The Romanian port of Constanta will be the gateway to Europe.

The first 42-container train, loaded with clothes, sports equipment and other items, weighing a total of 316 tonnes, has already passed from Xi'an to the west via the Khorgos Dry Port. 

According to Railfreight, this “rail-sea-rail-sea” multimodal transport solution is a new attempt by Xi’an Dry Port to address the current market situation. It is no coincidence that many companies are exploring this alternative solution at the same time. For example, Gansu Wuwei, in cooperation with the Port of Poti, is also operating regular freight trains on the same multimodal route, with further extensions to the Hungarian capital Budapest using rail or inland shipping.

However, Chinese rail companies are not the only ones showing a preference for the Trans-Caspian route. In early March, the Dutch rail logistics provider Rail Bridge Cargo launched a multimodal route between Zhengzhou in China and Duisburg-Neuss in Germany. The service has a transit time of 23-25 days and passes through Kazakhstan, Baku and Poti. However, Constanta is not the only option to enter Europe since the company also uses the Bulgarian port of Varna. From Varna-Constanta, cargo reaches its end destinations either by rail or road.

On top of that, Silk Road company RTSB is also participating in the Middle Corridor ‘fever’ with a multimodal service transiting both through the Black Sea and the BTK line and Turkey. Nevertheless, this service is not explicitly new for RTSB since the company has been exploring these options since 2015.

It is noteworthy that Russia is criticizing this new Trans-Caspian railway route. Sergey Avseykov, Executive Officer of the Eurasian Union of Railway Transportation Participants, told RЖD-Partner that launching such routes bypassing Russia would not affect the Russian shipping container market, as its declared volume is far behind the volume of the Russian container turnover.

However, the Russians recognize the problem and are looking for a solution. Discussing what retaliatory actions the Russian container market should take in these conditions, Sergey Avseykov added that, first of all, by moving the logistics to the east, it is necessary to build transport-logistics centers in the regions. Avseykov's Agency, together with the Ministry of Transport and the government, is already preparing proposals to change the departmental program.