China-Europe Railway Express surpasses 130,000 trips, multimodal expansion planned for 15th Five-Year Plan

The National Development and Reform Commission announced at a special press conference that as of July 2026, the cumulative number of China-Europe Railway Express trips had exceeded 130,000, with the value of goods transported surpassing US$520 billion. The share of this value in total China-Europe merchandise trade has risen year by year. As of June 2026, the heavy container rate had remained at 100% for 46 consecutive months. The ratio of return trips to outbound trips is close to 1:1, indicating a more balanced trip structure.

The operational efficiency of the China-Europe Railway Express continues to improve. The total transit time from Xi'an, China to Duisburg, Germany has been reduced from 15 days to as fast as 11 days. On June 8, 2016, China Railway officially launched the unified brand for the China-Europe Railway Express. The number of trips grew from 1,702 in 2016 to 20,022 in 2025, representing an average annual growth rate exceeding 30%. Current monthly trips are now equivalent to the full-year level of 2016.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China will improve transport organization services for the China-Europe Railway Express, strengthen coordination along the entire route, optimize transport organization models, enhance customs clearance facilitation, and improve end-to-end timeliness stability. It will also expand diversified and resilient corridors by coordinating rail, road, sea, and air transport modes and opening new multimodal transport routes. China will deepen strategic alignment with countries along the route, promote infrastructure connectivity, enhance the comprehensive operational capacity of key ports, optimize the layout of hub nodes, and advance the alignment and mutual recognition of rules, regulations, and standards. The country will raise the level of safety and development, improve intergovernmental cooperation mechanisms, and ensure network security and smooth corridor operations. It will deepen innovation and integrated development, expand investment and financing channels, leverage special loans and special investment funds, deepen cooperation with multilateral development institutions, and utilize financial institution resources from countries along the route.