The world’s longest railway connection crosses eight time zones. Covering over 13,000 kilometers, it runs from Yiwu in Eastern China to Madrid in Spain. InterRail, a Militzer & Münch sister company, offers regular transports along the record route – also to the benefit of Militzer & Münch customers.
When compared to air and sea freight, the overland transportation comes with two advantages: rail transport is decisively faster than sea freight and much more cost-efficient than air freight. On the longest freight train connection of the world, the container block trains usually transit eight countries: Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and China. Along the route, the containers usually have to be transshipped several times, as there are three changes in rail gauge.
Nikolaus Kohler, Regional Managing Director Middle East / Central Asia, says: “We are deeply rooted in many countries along the New Silk Road – this plays an eminent role for our customers. Not only can we offer them flexible solutions on the freight train connection from China to Europe and vice versa, we can also offer them solutions for the markets along this route.”
Pioneer InterRail
InterRail was the pioneer with container block trains between China and Europe. The first open trains were operated in 2014 by InterRail affiliate TransRail Belarus between Chengdu, China, and Łódź in Poland. As a neutral operator, InterRail also started the train connection from Yiwu to Europe in 2015, with such prominent destinations as Madrid, London or Prague.
Race track for fashion, food and electronics
In most cases, these containers carry consumer goods from China for Spain. Yiwu is the world’s biggest trading platform for numerous products such as textiles and electronic devices. And the Chinese market again is supplied with Spanish ham, wine, water and olive oil. At least 900 billion US dollars – that’s the amount the Chinese government has set aside or already invested in projects along the New Silk Road. Over 60 countries are involved in the project.