The first container train Ukraine-China, which departed on January 15, heading for China and bypassing the territory of Russia, arrived at the Chinese border on the night of January 30 to 31, declared the press-service of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine on February 1.
It is noted that on January 31, at 07:12 local time the train was broken up at Dostyk station of Kazakhstan's railway. "This is the ending point of the new route “Silk Road”. In the future, the goods will be shipped in large industrial cities in China – Guangzhou, Chongqing, Lianyungang”, explained the Ministry
The general shipping time of the route totaled 15.5 days, as opposed to11-12 days, previously announced by the Ministry. The delays occurred in the Black Sea region and in Kazakhstan. Thus, the travel time increased due to the delay of ferry on the Black Sea, caused by the storm, and some downtime at Zhanaarka station in Kazakhstan due to a lack of coordination regarding the procedure of payment to the Kazakh party.
“Such changes in the schedule during the test travel is normal. Its purpose lies in the joint development of the route by train operators in each of the participating countries. Demonstration travel helped to identify possible bottlenecks and to understand how to avoid them in the future. This will become the basis for improving logistics system after running trains on the new silk road on a regular basis”, informed the press-service.
To date, the train stays at the railway station Dostyk. The following step includes loading the goods for transportation in the opposite direction.
As a reminder, on January 15 the pilot container train departed from Illichivsk (Odessa oblast) on the route Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-China (via the Caspian and the Black Seas). The reporting route is a new branch of the Silk Road and an alternative which will allow redirecting cargo flows in an easterly direction, bypassing the Russian territory.
You can receive more detailed information about the new transit route within frames of the Caspian and Black Sea Agrarian Congress .
