On April 16, 2024, a sea-rail train loaded with export goods slowly pulled out of Yuan Bei Railway Station in Huaian and headed for Luchaogang station in Shanghai. This is the first time that the Huaian-Shanghai Sea rail train has crossed the river via the Shanghai-Sutong Bridge to arrive at Luchao Port Station in Shanghai, and the full journey time has been shortened from about 30 hours before to 16 hours.

According to reports, the train loaded a total of 50 40-foot containers, the main source of solar photovoltaic panels, auto parts, furniture, polyester silk, display shelves, etc. Chen Rong, deputy general manager of Huai 'an Xingang Railway Co., LTD., told reporters, "The train is a planned train of China Railway Shanghai Bureau Group Co., LTD., running in strict accordance with the timetable, and from the Shanghai-Sutong Bridge across the river, the train speed increased from 80km/h to 120km/h. Therefore, more and higher requirements have been put forward for container scheduling, cargo handling, traffic organization and other aspects. In order to ensure the safety and on-time operation of the train as planned, the relevant units of China Railway Shanghai Bureau Group Co., LTD., Shanghai Port Railway combined transport Company, freight forwarding companies, Huaian Xingang Railway and other units cooperated sincerely and cooperated to ensure that every link and every operation was completed on time or even ahead of schedule." Huaian Xingang Railway Company strives to ensure the safety and punctuality of the train by rationally arranging the stacking of empty heavy containers in the railway freight yard, optimizing the production process, improving the loading and unloading efficiency, increasing the investment in the collection of truck capacity, and strengthening the maintenance and maintenance of equipment and facilities.

"Compared with road transport, the logistics cost of sea and rail trains is saved by more than 30%, and now the train from Shanghai to Jiangsu through the river, the transportation time has been reduced by more than half, further increasing the confidence of our foreign trade enterprises to choose sea and rail transport mode, we will arrange more foreign trade goods to choose sea and rail transport mode," said Xu Juan, customs manager of Jiangsu Hexing Automobile Technology Co., LTD.

Huaian Port is a modern logistics comprehensive service platform built by the municipal Party committee and the municipal government. As an important part of Huaian Port, Huaian Xingang Railway Company actively implements the requirements of national transportation structure adjustment and vigorously develops railway transportation. Since the opening of sea-rail combined transport business in 2019, the volume of containers has been increasing, and the shipping volume of sea-rail will be 15,100 TEU in 2023. In the first quarter of 2024, the shipment volume of sea-rail combined transport has exceeded 0.52 million TEU.

"Actively striving for the sea-rail train to cross the river from the Shanghai-Sutong Bridge is a major measure for Huai 'an to focus on creating a 'green highland and hub new city' and comprehensively building a modern central city in the north of the Yangtze River Delta, and it is also a major breakthrough in implementing the work requirements of the national comprehensive freight hub to supplement the chain and strengthen the chain, promoting the 'transit rail' and 'iron-water combined transport'." We will accelerate cross-mode integration, cross-regional coordination, and cross-sector interaction. Editor/Wang Tian