China Increases Express Freight Trains

Photo Credit: AJ Benton

CHINA –– New timetable from April 10 adds 148 freight services each day.

China Railway (CR) introduced a new national freight timetable on April 10, introducing eight new inter-city express freight trains operating at a maximum speed of 160km/h, 53 inter-city fast freight trains with a maximum speed of 120km/h and 87 standard freight trains operating at up to 80km/h.

In addition, 13 new fast and 16 standard intermodal services have been added to the express demonstration freight trains between major economic centres such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area. The objective is to provide more integrated logistics over long distances.

There are also five more trains dedicated to carrying cotton, as well as an increase in the number of services dedicated to other commodities. This includes an additional train carrying polyester from Hangzhou in Zhejiang province in eastern China, a centre for polyester production, to the major garment manufacturing centre of Foshan in Guangdong province, bringing to six the number of dedicated polyester trains operating between Zhejiang and Foshan.

In the first quarter of 2026, CR carried 1.28 billion tonnes of freight, up 2.2% on the year before. This includes 681 million tonnes of coal, 256 million tonnes of containerised freight, and 15.28 million tonnes of cereals. Freight traffic amounted to 907.19 billion tonne-km, up 5.1% year-on- year. CR invested Yuan 137.9bn ($US 20.23bn) in fixed assets in the first quarter, an increase of 5.1% over the same period last year.

Passenger Timetable

CR’s new quarterly passenger timetable update was activated on April 15, with service amendments nationwide. On Hainan Island, enhancements to rail-air interconnectivity include all trains on the eastern ring route now calling at Haikou’s Meilan Airport, and all those on the western route calling at Sanya’s Fenghuang Airport. Eight daily services on the eastern route now extend to Fenghuang Airport, five more than a year ago. Trains now run on the eastern Hainan ring line every 20 minutes at peak times.

Passenger traffic figures continue to rise. The national railway network was used by an average of 12,072 passenger trains per day in the first quarter, an increase of 7.1% year-on-year. Of these, 627 were tourist trains, an area of significant growth. 1.13 billion passenger journeys were recorded in the first three months of the year, an increase of 5.5% on the same period last year. Cross-border routes experienced significant growth in passenger traffic during the first quarter, with the China-Laos railway carrying 112,000 cross-border passengers, an increase of 31.6% year-on-year.