L-R: Marc Wengler, director general of CFL; Marc Hübsch, ambassador; François Bausch, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, Minister of Mobility and Public Works; Xiadiu Liu, Deputy Mayor of Chengdu;
Credit: MMTP
Last Friday saw the departure of the first freight train from Chengdu in China to Bettembourg in Luxembourg.
The event took place during the second day of Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mobility and Public Works François Bausch's working working visit to China.
On this occasion, Minister Bausch visited the Chengdu Qingbaijiang Railway Freight Station, where an official ceremony was held for the departure of this first freight train from Chengdu to the intermodal terminal of Bettembourg-Dudelange. This train will travel 10,000 km in two weeks, passing through Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany before arriving in Bettembourg in southern Luxembourg.
In 2018, 6,300 trains ran between Europe and China, almost double the number of trains in 2017 (3,600). The forecast for 2019 is currently more than 8,000 trains. As such, the initial target set in 2016 to launch 5,000 trains by 2020 has been exceeded.
The Ministry of Mobility has maintained that the diversification of the types of goods transported, including the end of the Russian embargo on certain types of products in transit and the need to better cover the European territory (notably France, Spain, Portugal and Italy), opens up real opportunities to position the Bettembourg-Dudelange terminal as a distribution hub for Western and Southern Europe, in addition to existing hubs.
