By rosebell
Progress of a new railway tunnel, which is due to enhance China-Europe freight connectivity, is accelerated as he State Council of the People’s Republic of China has announced.
Being located northeast of China’s Heilongjiang Province, this 602m tunnel is under construction along the railway line connecting Suifenhe and the China-Russia border line in Suifenhe.
The scheduled date for completion of this project is May 2025, and will replace three 120-year-old tunnels.
While continuing the routine monitoring and inspection by workers, construction on the new Suifenhe tunnel continues even during the Spring Festival.
As a key hub on the eastern China-Europe freight train corridor, the annual capacity of Suifenhe Port is 900 China-Europe freight train trips and 88,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) and it aims to boost connectivity for a key China-Europe rail hub.
Linking cities like Chongqing and Duisburg, the China-Europe freight rail supported land transport was launched in 2011 and its results led to developed routes linking cities like Chengdu, Wuhan, and Yiwu to European destinations such as Warsaw, Madrid, London, and Moscow.
Through boosting trade and connectivity along the ancient Silk Road, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that was commissioned in 2013, strengthened the China-Europe freight train service.
Considering that this service is enhancing economic ties between China and Europe, it has become a key component of the BRI.
Covering almost all of Eurasia, the freight train network now links 224 cities in 25 European countries and over 100 cities in 11 Asian countries. This year, the service transported over 1.08 million TEUs, marking an 11% annual increase.
In a similar development, in October last year, China Railway 14th Bureau Group (CRCC14) announced that the tunnel for Beijing Subway Line 17 had been fully drilled, following the completion of its middle section.
