At about 10:00 on May 20, with a horn blowing, X9202 CRE train (Tianjin-Ulaanbaatar) departed at China Railway Tianjin Container Central Station, which is affiliated to Beijing Railway Logistics Center of China Railway Beijing Group Co., Ltd. All 54 cars of the train carried international through traffic containers fully loaded with automobiles, accessories, food, clothing and other supplies sent to Mongolia.
The central station is the only container operation station in North China that has the receiving-departure track concurrently serving as the freight-traffic track, where the loaded trains can be put into operation directly. This train takes the shipside transshipment mode, and the container transportation period is shortened by nearly 2 days. After departure at the central station, the train, running along the central passage of CRE trains, will leave China at Erenhot Port, enter Mongolia at Zamin Uud Port and head to Ulaanbaatar. At a top speed of 120 km/h, the train will take about 5 days to reach the destination of the 1,583km journey. One train will be operated per day hereafter, which will provide new momentum to help enterprises resume work and production, promote the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative and win the Blue Sky Protection Campaign.
According to the relevant officials of the central station, the construction and application of the central station has received strong support from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. and Tianjin municipal government. From the very beginning of its establishment, it has set up the goal of "taking the central station as a platform, vigorously developing container rail-sea intermodal transportation, and building an international brand with Tianjin as an important terminal". Tianjin Customs has opened up a green channel so that the goods can be inspected immediately as they arrived and immediately released upon passing inspection, which will improve the efficiency of customs clearance. It has applied the alongside delivery mode and made full use of containers' transit time for handling customs clearance procedures. After the ship leaves the port, the containers can be released and transported directly to the central station, thus greatly improving the efficiency of railway transportation from port.
Since 2020, the central station and terminal companies in Tianjin Port have cooperated deeply to realize the sharing of customer resources, cargo information and yard/station resources. It has reduced the turnover of cargoes, expanded the whole-journey logistics service and won the high recognition from many enterprises. The central station has made great efforts to overcome the adverse effects of the epidemic, increasing capital investment in informatization and operation machinery, strengthening transportation organization, and greatly improving the operation capability. The route from Xingang North to Erenhot is currently the shortest transit transport route in China. The entire transportation period has been shortened by nearly one day, and the comprehensive cost of customers has been greatly reduced.
From January 1 to May 15 this year, 40,000 TEUs of containers were dispatched from the central station, up 84% year-on-year. Its freight delivery reached 620,000 tons, up 55% year-on-year, mainly covering nonferrous metal ores, industrial machinery, food, newsprint, mining products, ferroalloy, etc.
