Holiday schedule

Amid China's annual Spring Festival travel rush, which this year ran from Jan 7 to Wednesday, the surge in passenger services and customer numbers usually puts more pressure on freight transportation as railway capacity becomes overwhelmed.

However, this is not the case for China-Europe freight trains. On Jan 19, a 54-car train loaded with food, beverages and daily commodities left Tianjin and headed to Mongolia and Russia. It was scheduled to arrive at its final destination within four or five days.

On Jan 13, a China-Europe freight train loaded with 1,300 tons of flour from Kazakhstan arrived in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, as the first train to cater for Spring Festival shopping in the city this year.

"We took the initiative to connect with customers and be aware of the amount of cargo and its arrival details in advance so we could better prepare vehicles, routes and staff. This improved the efficiency of the operation of China-Europe freight trains," said Bai Kuanfeng, an official at the Xi'an Guojigang Railway Station, a freight hub in the city.