An aerial drone photo taken on Dec. 20, 2024 shows the scenic view of Yangluo Port in Wuhan, Hubei. (Xinhua)
The train of the times is roaring past. Trains of the China Railway Express (CRE), like flowing blood, run day and night across the Eurasian continent. They no longer adhere to a single track but flexibly shuttle between railways, waterways, and highways, using the innovative brushstrokes of multimodal transport to paint a dynamic picture of modern trade.
First Movement: "Symphony" Performed Aloud by Road and Rail
On March 19, 2025, a whistle pierced the night sky over Haian, Jiangsu Province. A "China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan" international multimodal transport train, fully loaded with machinery and plastic products, set off from the Haian Railway Logistics Base. Under the supervision and inspection of Nantong Customs, the train headed for Kashgar, Xinjiang, where it would be transferred to road transport, passing through Kyrgyzstan and finally arriving in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
This was the first direct departure "China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan" multimodal transport international train from Jiangsu after the General Administration of Customs launched the pilot program for multimodal transport of export goods. Enterprises only need to declare the entire logistics information once, and customs will implement intelligent full-process supervision. Goods can be dispatched from nearby locations, and seamless connections are achieved between railways and roads.
"Compared with the traditional mode of two-time transshipment and sequential customs clearance, the new model can save 2 to 3 days of transfer time and reduce the average cost of port passage by about 3,000 yuan per container," said Yang Zhanchen, director of the Haian Office of Nantong Customs. This model not only simplifies procedures and saves time but also brings tangible economic benefits to enterprises with its convenient process of "no container change, no container opening, and one container to the destination."
Second Movement: Splendid Chapter Played by the River
In China's western regions, the "ensemble" of multimodal transport is quietly rewriting the fate of geography. Once an inland hinterland breaks through the barriers of mountains and rivers with a crisscrossing transportation network, it will leap from the "end" of openness to the "front" of cooperation.
In the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Wuhan stands like a dragon's spine. Here, the Yangluo Port is not only the largest container hub in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River but also the gateway for Wuhan to reach the sea and embrace the world.
On June 6, 2025, four return trips of the CRE trains successively arrived at Wuhan Wujiashan Station. Under the precise scheduling of the gantry cranes, the containers were transferred in an orderly manner, flowing into the Yangtze River's golden waterway via Xianglushan and Shekou stations, playing a smooth melody of "rail-water multimodal transport."
At Yangluo Port in Wuhan, workers are remotely operating mechanical equipment to lift and load containers, on July 5, 2023. (Xinhua)
In recent years, Wuhan Asia-Europe Logistics, a subsidiary of Hubei Port Group, has continuously explored the "railway + waterway" multimodal transport, allowing the steel pulse of the CRE to echo with the thousand-year flow of the Yangtze River, creating a new rhythm.
"Most of the export goods from cities in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River can be unloaded at Yangluo Port and then transferred to the CRE (Wuhan) for export; the imported goods of the CRE returning to Wuhan can be distributed to all parts of the country through waterway at Wuhan Yangluo Port," said Xiong Jian, deputy general manager of the Logistics Department of Wuhan Railway Bureau of China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway).
In the first eight months of 2025, the number of containers transferred at Yangluo Port by the return trips of the CRE (Wuhan) reached 18,102 TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 198%. Lumber from Russia, machinery from Germany, and grains and oils from Central Asia... Various goods flow eastward along the Yangtze River, reaching Taicang, Shanghai, Qingdao, and Dalian, painting a modern picture of "railways guiding the river flow, goods connecting Asia and Europe."
A cross-border "road-to-railway" multimodal transport CRE train (Hanoi-Xi'an-Budapest) is ready to depart, on March 7, 2024. (Xinhua)
Third Movement: "Sonata" Resonated to Promote Harmony of Land and Sea
In May 2025, a Rail-Sea Intermodal Transport CRE train, following the route of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, whistled its departure from Qinzhou East Station in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Goods such as LCD TVs produced in Jakarta, Indonesia, were brought across the ocean, landed in the Beibu Gulf, and then traveled by rail to the inland hub of Chongqing Tuanjiecun Central Station.
In Chongqing, these far-traveled goods underwent an efficient "handover ceremony" — after being efficiently inspected and released by Chongqing Customs, they seamlessly connected with the CRE (Chongqing) and then passed through the Horgos Port in Xinjiang to Europe, with the entire journey taking approximately 20 to 25 days.
The X387 CRE train, designated to handle e-commerce commodities and equipped with "road-to-railway" multimodal containers, is waiting for departure at the Xi'an International Port Station, on March 26, 2024. (Xinhua)
"Previously, Indonesian goods could only be transported to Europe by sea. Now, a sea-rail multimodal transportation is available. They can first be transported by sea to Qinzhou Port in Guangxi, and then by rail to Europe, ensuring a more reliable delivery time," said Zhong Chaowen, the deputy director of the Transportation Marketing Department of the Coastal Railway Co. of China Railway Nanning Bureau.
Zhong Chaowen added that to meet the urgent demand for logistics in shipping, international trade, processing trade and other industries, the number of routes for the CRE train via the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor has expanded from the initial one to 24. Routes from the Beibu Gulf to Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou have all achieved efficient connections with the CRE system, forming a convenient transportation network covering major cities in China's western region with the Beibu Gulf Port as the core seaport and Chongqing and Chengdu as the operation centers.
With more cooperation models available, the melody of multimodal transport "sonata" is becoming increasingly vigorous. Nowadays, the combination of "CRE + air transport" combines the large capacity of railways with the high efficiency of air transport, opening up a fast channel for high-value-added goods... Just as David Perazashvili, the general manager of the Georgian National Railway Company, said, "From a single line to a three-dimensional international trade transportation network that is 'unobstructed and efficient, multi-directionally extended, and interconnected by sea and land,' the CRE has made transportation between Asia and Europe smooth and unimpeded." (By Dai Linlin, with research assistance from Wang Songtao)
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