New trans-Asia rail service to start after Chinese New Year

New trans-Asia rail service to start after Chinese New Year DB Schenker said Monday it will begin scheduled rail freight services from Germany to China after the Chinese New Year in February, as the first container train linking China to Germany arrived in Hamburg.
   The service, the Trans Eurasia Express, will employ two container trains traveling weekly between the two countries with a transit time of less than 20 days.
   'Our endurance in pursuing this project is now paying off,” said Hartmut Mehdorn, chief executive officer and chairman of DB Schenker, in Hamburg to celebrate the arrival of container train carrying products for Fujitsu Siemens Computers from Xiangtang in China. “Thanks to our cooperation with five other railways, including the Chinese and Russian railways, we are now able to open up an attractive and reliable new trade route for our customers between the markets in China and Central Europe. We are thus offering an attractive supplement to slower ocean freight and significantly more expensive air freight.”
   The 10,000-kilometer journey from Xiangtang to Hamburg took 17 days.
   The container trains will link up Shanghai and Beijing with Hamburg, Nuremberg and Duisburg, with interest in the new service already being shown by companies in the automotive, chemical, engineering and paper industries, as well as manufacturers of household goods, DB Schenker said.