China-EU fast-track rail freight cooperation

'Green passages'

Since the outbreak started, the freight trains have been playing a crucial role in supporting Europe's anti-epidemic fight by opening "green passages" for the transportation of important supplies and raw materials.

From January to May, trains carried about 12,520 metric tons of materials to fight the epidemic from China to European countries.

Lyazid Benhami, vice-president of the Paris Association of French-Chinese Friendship, was delighted to witness the June 23 arrival.

"In this health crisis, we are pleased to note that this important cargo of materials transported (to France), including 20 million surgical masks and protective equipment, will help meet the demand and needs of consumers and the market," he said.

Yao Hongzhi, general manager of the COSCO Shipping (France) Agency, said the smooth operation of the supply trains has proved the feasibility, punctuality and safety of the land corridor, which has lower delivery costs than air freight and shorter journey times and greater flexibility than sea freight.

"Against the backdrop of current international anti-pandemic cooperation, the China-Europe freight trains have fully demonstrated their advantages in transporting medical materials," Yao said.

Carrying 35 containers of control and prevention materials, all manufactured in the central Chinese province of Hubei, a freight train from Wuhan, the provincial capital, headed for the German city of Duisburg, a logistics hub in central Europe, before carrying on to Hamburg.

"The original mode of transportation to Europe was container ships, but now the products need to be delivered as quickly as possible," said Gao Zandong, deputy general manager of COSCO Shipping Lines (Wuhan).

Gao noted that it only took about 10 days to transport the goods from Hubei to Germany.

On June 29, Madrid greeted a freight train from Yiwu, in East China's Zhejiang province, carrying 86 twenty-foot equivalent unit containers holding about 257 tons of cargo, including 25 million face masks and 400,000 protective suits.

Carlos Santana, a representative of the company that operates the Yiwu-Madrid line in Spain, told Xinhua that railway transportation has proved a reliable way of carrying health materials from China in the midst of the pandemic.

Wu Haitao, China's ambassador to Spain, said the Yiwu-Madrid express carrying medical materials is proof of international cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus.