Source: Deutsche Welle (www.dw-world.de)                      Date: 25 May, 2011

A new freight train route has recently gone into operation connecting Antwerp in Belgium to the western Chinese city of Chongqing, 11,000 kilometers away. It provides an alternative to air and sea shipping. Five times a week, a freight train leaves the harbor of Antwerp on the start of an extremely long journey. It passes through Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Mongolia before reaching its final destination: Chongqing, a city of 32 million people in western China.

The train is part of a multinational project that aims to provide a new transportation option and connect a major European port with a fast-growing industrial center in the Chinese interior. "In addition to rapid, but expensive air freight and the inexpensive but slow ocean shipping, now there is a relatively quick and cheap alternative," said Mr. Zeng Su, the chief representative in Chongqing for the Antwerp region's development authority.

The first train rolled out of the Port of Antwerp on May 9. The train travels along existing tracks, and although it crosses six national borders, Belgian authorities are working with officials along the route, trying to avoid delays due to customs formalities. "We want to establish a 'green lane' where there are agreements between customs authorities of the individual nations involved," said Mr. Mark van Peel, president of the Antwerp Port Authority. He said he hopes to have the agreements in place by October and shorten a 20- to 25-day journey down to one that takes between 15 and 20 days.