In the first three quarters of this year, China's national railway system transported a cumulative 3.05 billion tonnes of cargo, with an average daily loading of 188,000 wagons, edging up 0.6% year-on-year and continuing to operate at a high level.
In terms of key commodities, the national railway shipped 1.56 billion tonnes of coal in the first three quarters, including 1.04 billion tonnes of thermal coal, while coal stockpiles at directly supplied power plants across the country remained at relatively high levels. The national railway also transported 88.96 million tonnes of grain, up 15% year-on-year. In September alone, as the autumn harvest season began, cumulative grain shipments reached 10.25 million tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 26%.
In the white cargo sector, a total of 1,629 logistics general contracting agreements were signed in the first three quarters, covering a contracted volume of 1.32 billion tonnes. A cumulative 37,500 cross-regional freight trains were operated, carrying 41.18 million tonnes of goods, up 38% year-on-year. Leveraging the role of the China Multimodal Transport Development Alliance, the railway sector joined hands with port and shipping enterprises to build eight demonstration lines for fully tracked rail-water intermodal transport, launched 244 "single-document" projects, and achieved an 8.9% year-on-year increase in container rail-water intermodal volume. In the first three quarters, rail-road intermodal volume reached 348 million tonnes, up 54% year-on-year.
In the first three quarters, 16,000 China-Europe freight trains were operated, up 15% year-on-year. Central Asia freight trains totaled 11,000 trips, up 2% year-on-year, while the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor's rail-sea intermodal trains carried over 970,000 TEUs. As of October 12, the number of China-Europe (Central Asia) freight trains passing through the Alashankou railway port on the western corridor exceeded 7,000 this year.
In the first three quarters, the two ports in Xinjiang handled 14,084 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight trains, up 5.3% year-on-year, with cargo throughput reaching 28.353 million tonnes, up 8.1% year-on-year. Wang Kai, an engineer from the technical section of Alashankou Station under China Railway Urumqi Group Co., Ltd., told reporters: "We dynamically optimize transport organization plans and continuously reduce the dwell time of trains at the station. This year, the port handles an average of 25 trains per day. Up to now, the number of scheduled China-Europe freight train routes passing through the Alashankou railway port has increased to eight, with 27 scheduled China-Europe freight trains entering and leaving the country each week. The fastest customs clearance time for trains at Alashankou railway port has been compressed to within four hours."
Dao Rina, deputy chief of the railway supervision section of Alashankou Customs, told reporters that through the "smart railway port plus localized rapid customs clearance" reform, the average inspection efficiency per train has improved by 70%, and the average departure time for trains has been compressed to within 30 minutes. This year, the highest single-day train throughput reached 36.
For 2026, the national railway plans to complete a cargo volume of 4.13 billion tonnes, up 1.5% year-on-year. In the first three quarters, 73.8% of the annual target has already been achieved. An official from the freight department of China Railway Group told reporters that in the first three quarters, the railway freight market held steady at a high level, laying the foundation for achieving the full-year target. The fourth quarter is a overlapping window for peak winter supply assurance, autumn harvest cargo outbound transport, and the white cargo market sprint, with external variables such as demand structure, climate, and corridor bottlenecks objectively present. The approach is not to simply boost volume by adding more trains, but to match structural capacity with structural demand.
On the key commodities side, the focus is on thermal coal, grain, and other categories vital to the national economy and people's livelihood, solidifying the medium- and long-term contract capacity guarantee mechanism, establishing dynamic monitoring lists for main production areas and directly supplied power plants, and prioritizing the smooth flow of supply assurance corridors. On the white cargo increment side, relying on logistics general contracting, passenger-style freight trains, and other market-oriented products to continuously penetrate the industrial chain, the focus of incremental growth is placed on stable and sustainable contracted cargo sources. At the capacity level, line maintenance windows, locomotives and rolling stock, and station capabilities are coordinated, channel redundancy is dynamically released, and a demand forecasting and flexible timetable adjustment mechanism is established.
"Overall, we are confident that through organizational optimization, deep market cultivation, and front-loaded risk management, we can smooth out periodic fluctuations, complete the annual freight target with high quality, and balance the bottom line of supply assurance with operational quality," the aforementioned official from the freight department of China Railway Group said.
At present, the growth rate gap between rail-water intermodal transport and rail-road intermodal transport is significant. In the first three quarters, rail-road intermodal transport surged 54% year-on-year, far higher than the 8.9% increase in rail-water intermodal transport. Regarding the reasons, the official from the freight department of China Railway Group said that the divergence in the growth rates of the two types of intermodal transport is essentially the result of the combined effects of differences in scenario endowments, customer structures, and infrastructure maturity. Rail-road intermodal transport connects inland manufacturing clusters and regional distribution markets, where the road capillary network is dense, the decision-making chain for cargo owners is short, and project implementation cycles are faster, aligning with the current pace of shifting freight from road to rail deeper into inland areas. Rail-water intermodal transport relies on port hubs and is more constrained by liner schedules, port storage, port collection and distribution facilities, and foreign trade order rhythms, resulting in more steady growth.
"The positioning of the China Multimodal Transport Development Alliance is to break through institutional and hardware bottlenecks between different transport modes, not simply to pursue uniform growth rates," the official from the freight department of China Railway Group believes. Next, the "single-document" approach will follow a tiered advancement path. Mature port demonstration lines will continue to deepen standard mutual recognition and direct system connections, expanding full-process tracking coverage. Inland rail-road intermodal scenarios will accelerate the replication of the one-time entrustment and one-time settlement model. On the hardware side, the focus will be on filling the "last mile" gaps for railways to enter ports, factories, and industrial parks, promoting facility compatibility and information connectivity at hub nodes, and transforming multimodal transport from isolated projects into replicable supply chain solutions adapted to different cargo flow structures.
In terms of passenger transport, in the first three quarters of this year, the national railway carried a cumulative 3.71 billion passenger trips, up 4.8% year-on-year, setting a new record for the same period in history. In the first three quarters, the national railway operated a cumulative 2,860 tourist trains, up 25.5% year-on-year, including 1,613 tourist special trains and 1,247 tourist line trains. Cross-border passenger transport organization was strengthened. The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed rail and the China-Laos railway carried 25.845 million and 265,000 cross-border passengers respectively, up 11.8% and 37.8% year-on-year. The national railway carried 19.002 million foreign passengers, up 33.4% year-on-year.
Comments