At 3:38 pm on June 30, 2026, a loud whistle pierced through the sky as a train loaded with 82 standard containers slowly started at the Huaihua International Land Port Multimodal Transport Center. These rolls of paper from Yueyang, Hunan, wooden planks from Hubei, and metal structural frames from Changsha will arrive directly at Qinzhou Port East Station in Beibu Gulf, Guangxi in 22 hours and 16 minutes, and then transfer to a sea vessel to travel to Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States. This is not only an ordinary departure, but also the debut of the line after being included in the national railway operation map, which means that the collection and distribution capacity of the Western Land Sea New Corridor in the central region has reached a new level.

The operation of the train is on track

In the past, railway freight plans needed to be applied for on a per trip basis, and the timeliness was difficult to guarantee. Now, with the departure of this scheduled train, the route from Huaihua West to Qinzhou Port has a fixed "ID card". The so-called schedule determination refers to the fixed train number, route, schedule, and time that the train has on the national railway group's timetable. This standardized model of fixed-point, fixed line, timed, priced, and scheduled trains has completely changed the previous situation of "goods waiting for vehicles" and achieved efficient circulation of "vehicles waiting for goods". The total value of the newly launched train is 452000 US dollars, and it is expected to arrive at the port at 1:40 am on July 1st, truly achieving "next day arrival".

Significant cost reduction and efficiency improvement for enterprises

The leap in transportation efficiency has allowed foreign trade enterprises to taste the sweetness first. Once upon a time, Huaihua's luggage and other products had to take detours to Guangzhou Nansha Port or Shenzhen Yantian Port when going abroad, and land transportation alone took three days. Nowadays, scheduled trains have compressed this duration to within 24 hours. The reduction of time costs directly leads to an increase in capital turnover, giving enterprises more confidence in international order negotiations. At the same time, the bamboo products industry in Huaihua has also ushered in new opportunities for development. A bamboo company has been steadily increasing its business volume since its trial shipment to land and port in 2023. Currently, dozens of TEUs of products are being steadily shipped to Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, and other places every month. The transportation time has been reduced from 3 to 4 days in the past to 22 hours, with an efficiency improvement of over 50%, significantly enhancing the product's price competitiveness in overseas markets.

Continuous upgrading of channel construction

In order to cooperate with the efficient operation of the scheduled train, Huaihua International Land Port has put a lot of effort into service details. The local innovatively launched the inland pre dispatching mechanism of empty containers, and transported the original stranded marine standard containers to Huaihua yard in advance. Enterprises can pick up empty containers and load them at their doorstep, and after loading the goods, they can directly board the scheduled train to go out to sea, achieving the goal of one container to the end and avoiding the damage and time consumption caused by changing containers midway. At present, the operator Fangzheng is working with the railway department to further optimize transportation organization and customs clearance processes, and is committed to promoting the normalization and high-density operation of trains. In the future, this major artery will further increase its frequency and expand its radiation range, strengthen its national level logistics hub function, provide stronger logistics support for outward oriented enterprises in Hunan and even the central region, and deeply integrate into the construction of the Western Land Sea New Corridor.Editor/Yang Meiling