BRATISLAVA, June 14 (Xinhua) -- The transportation of Chinese freight trains via Slovakia has been resumed after more than one year of intermission on Wednesday.
More than 40 containers being transshipped from a broad-gauge railway to a European-gauge railway in Dobra terminal near the Slovak-Ukrainian border in the day.
The train has been dispatched from the southern Chinese city of Changsha and is heading via Slovakia further to Budapest.
"This is a new beginning of cargo trains' heading from China to the European Union via Slovakia. It's a great success and we have achieved it after more than a year's efforts and a series of joint negotiations with Chinese, Russian and Ukrainian partners," Slovak Transport and Construction Minister Arpad Ersek said on Wednesday.
According to Peter Hrapko from the Slovak Transport and Construction Ministry, the Slovak expert working group met in March more than 30 Chinese logistics companies, which had declared the interest to route the regular railway lines to Europe through Slovakia.
"We believe that this train provides the evidence and further regular link will be established," Hrapko said.
China opened its first trans-continental freight train route in July 2013. Several Chinese cities, including Chongqing, Chengdu, Changsha, Hefei, Yiwu, Suzhou and Harbin, have already launched similar freight train services to Europe.
In 2016, the number of China-Europe freight trains surpassed 1,700, including 1,130 outbound trains and 572 inbound trains, an increase of 109 percent year on year.
