On September 7, 2026, China Railway Urumqi Bureau Group Co., Ltd. released data: In the first eight months, there were 12473 China Europe (Central Asia) trains passing through Khorgos and Alashankou railway ports, up 5% year on year, and 25.1 million tons of goods passing through ports, up 8.2% year on year, both of which hit a new record.

Train running acceleration

Since 2026, Xinjiang's import and export trade has flourished, bringing more opportunities for railway dual port transportation. The Xinjiang railway department deepens communication and cooperation between China and Kazakhstan railways, organizes the loading of various types of goods in a balanced manner, accelerates the handover of wide gauge heavy vehicles, dynamically adjusts traffic flow routes, and coordinates with customs and border inspections to compress operation time. During the same period, the railway freight volume in Xinjiang reached 170 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 4.2%, ranking among the top in terms of growth rate in the entire railway industry. The dual ports have maintained an average annual traffic volume of over 10000 trains for several consecutive years.

Compress clearance to 30 minutes

In order to improve the efficiency of China Europe (Central Asia) trains, the Xinjiang railway department strictly implements the priority replacement, priority grouping, and priority shipping guarantee mechanism, dynamically adjusts the on-site manpower and equipment configuration, compresses the shift handover time, strengthens the connection and cooperation between each shift and operation link, implements 24-hour uninterrupted train reception and departure, and fully guarantees the fast reception, replacement, and departure of inbound and outbound trains.

Cai Guangxu, Deputy Director of the Safety Production Command Center of Khorgos Station, introduced that through optimizing transportation organization, information communication in advance, and close cooperation with the customs department, the shortest port clearance time has been reduced to less than 30 minutes; At the same time, strengthen communication and coordination with the railway department of Kazakhstan to ensure timely departure of trains.

The Alashankou Railway Port closely monitors changes in transportation volume, improves the wide gauge re export operation process, assesses enterprise transportation needs, dynamically optimizes the use of wide gauge field lines, scientifically allocates track resources, reasonably utilizes replacement lines, maximizes the release of wide gauge loading and unloading capacity, and increases the weekly wide gauge re export volume by more than 200 vehicles. In terms of customs, we will simultaneously deepen the reform of smart railway ports and rapid customs clearance in local areas, promote appointment clearance and consolidation of manifest, use intelligent machine inspection and intelligent map review, and achieve immediate inspection and release of trains upon arrival.

Weaving a dense Asia Europe logistics network

The denser the weaving of the route, the most intuitive change at the dual ports. At present, there are 91 China Europe (Central Asia) regular trains passing through Khorgos railway port, reaching 18 countries, 46 cities and regions; There are 129 railway lines passing through the Alashankou railway port, connecting 21 countries including Germany and Poland. More than 200 types of goods have been transported, and the two-way cargo flow structure continues to be optimized.

From sporadic operation to regular operation, more than half of the China Europe freight trains in the country exit through Xinjiang. The iron and steel camel caravans are constantly shuttling around, transforming Xinjiang's regional advantages and channel advantages into development advantages, providing more solid logistics support for high-quality joint construction of the the Belt and Road and promoting Asia Europe economic and trade exchanges.Editor/Yang Meiling