January 25, 2008 (LPAC)--The "Beijing-Hamburg-Container-Express" pilot train has arrived in Hamburg, Germany, in just 15 days, after an 9,780-km journey from Beijing, China. The train left Beijing Jan. 9, to test the feasibility of new agreements to ensure that the Eurasian Continental Bridge between China and Europe could function in a timely way--and this was proven when the train arrived yesterday, five days ahead of the expected 20-day schedule. This is well less than half the the time it would take to transport goods by sea, and this is the time frame for transport that Deutsche Bahn officials considered would make the rail service "viable."

This record rate of transit was ensured by cooperation between Deutsche Bahn AG, and all the countries along the route-- Mongolia, Russia, Belarus and Poland--to ensure that customs, guage change, and other factors did not delay the container train. Deutsche Bahn Chief Executive Officer Hartmut Mehdorn has put out a statement saying that "the workers of the six participating railways have proved with their excellent cooperation that Asian-European freight traffic traversing Eurasia has a future." Mehdorn said Deutsche Bahn aims for regular European-Asian rail traffic by the end of the decade, although Chinese rail officials are much more optimistic. On Jan. 9 in Beijing, Zheng Mingli, chairman and president of China Railway Container Transport, had said that the "goal is to open a scheduled railway container service between the six countries. Barring any complications, a scheduled container train should be shuttling between China and Germany in a year's time."

The train was greeted in Hamburg by officials including Russian Railways CEO Vladimir Yakunin. Some matters such as allowed train length--much longer in China and Russia than in Germany--have to be resolved. Deutsche Bahn said goods produced in the Chinese interior could be transported more cheaply on the Beijing-Hamburg route than by way of China's east coast ports.

Deutsche Bahn logistics chief, Norbert Bensel was quoted by AFP today saying that the "test train was a success. We have demonstrated that we can transport goods by rail between China and Germany safely, reliably and yet twice as fast as compared with ships. At the same time, we are considerably cheaper than air freight for many types of cargo."