A China-Europe freight train departs from Changsha North Railway Station in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province. (Photo/Wang Haoxu) 

In June 2026, the China-Europe Railway Express celebrated the 10th anniversary of its unified brand. Over the past decade, the service has seen substantial growth in scale, network reach, service quality, and overall impact. Annual train departures rose from 1,702 in 2016 to 20,022 in 2025, a 10.8-fold increase.

On the morning of June 16, the dispatch hall at Xinglongchang Station in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality was a hive of activity. The dispatch center runs on a four-shift system to ensure 24/7 operations, said Zou Xing, deputy director of the station's dispatch workshop.

Xinglongchang Station is a key hub for the operations of China-Europe freight trains in Chongqing. After trains are loaded at Tuanjiecun Railway Station, they return to Xinglongchang Station for disassembly and re-marshalling before continuing toward Eurasia.

An official from the logistics center at China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. noted that China-Europe freight trains currently operate at speeds of 1,600 kilometers per day on domestic sections and 1,000 to 1,300 kilometers per day overseas.

A delegation of CEOs from German companies learns about the operations of China-Europe freight trains at the Inland International Logistics Hub Exhibition Center in Shapingba district, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. (Photo/Sun Kaifang) 

In Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, the China-Europe freight train service has also continued to accelerate. In November 2025, the first freight train operating on full timetables departed from Changsha North Railway Station, bound for Poznan in Poland.

"Through strengthened coordination between domestic and overseas stations and improved capacity assurance, the train operates with high-speed-rail-like punctuality, with a stable transit time of 12 days and 17 hours, which is about 72 hours faster than conventional services," said Su Ming, manager of the Changsha business department of the Guangzhou Branch of China Railway Container Transport Corp., Ltd. (CRCT).

"In the early days, China-Europe freight trains departing from Changsha mainly carried low-value goods such as porcelain and tea. Today, engineering machinery, auto parts, and large equipment have become Hunan's core exports," said Chen Hongsheng, deputy general manager of Hunan Zhongnan International Land Port Co., Ltd.

This shift reflects the broader evolution of the China-Europe freight train service over the past decade. According to data, the trains now carry goods across 53 major categories and more than 50,000 types of products.

Both the inaugural China-Europe freight trains departing from Chongqing and Changsha terminated in Duisburg, Germany. A decade later, Chongqing now operates 53 stable routes covering 118 hub cities across 39 countries in Asia and Europe, while Changsha has launched 75 major routes reaching 100 cities in nearly 30 countries.

A train inspector examines a China-Europe freight train at Xinglongchang Station in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee) 

According to data from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., China-Europe freight trains now operate in 129 Chinese cities, an increase of 113 since 2016. The network now reaches 236 cities across 26 countries in Europe, up by 216 in 2016.

"Unified branding has helped curb disorderly competition and promote differentiated, specialized development among regional services," said an official from the operational platform for the China-Europe freight train services in Changsha.

Changsha has built its network around key hubs such as Minsk, Moscow, and Lodz, developing flagship routes including the Changsha-Minsk service. At its peak, this route accounted for nearly half of China's total China-Europe freight train shipments to Minsk.