Freight train service deepens China-Europe cooperation amid pandemic

By Jiang Bo, People’s Daily

On June 29, a Yiwu-Madrid express train carrying 70 TEU containers of pandemic prevention materials arrived in Madrid, Spain. The goods, including 25.05 million masks and 400,000 sets of protective clothing, weighed 257 tons.

“These materials are very valuable. They support us in strengthening epidemic prevention and control and create a safe environment for resumption of production,” said the Spanish manager of DSV, a Danish transport and logistics company.

Spain has a rising demand for pandemic prevention materials, and the China-Europe freight train service has obvious advantages in material transportation. It is reliable and convenient, he added.

Wu Haitao, the Chinese ambassador to Spain, said the Yiwu-Madrid express train carrying medical materials is a living proof of international anti-coronavirus cooperation.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the freight trains have been playing a crucial role in supporting Europe’s anti-pandemic fight by opening “green passages” for the transport of important supplies and raw materials.

Over the course of the first six months of the year, freight trains have made a total of 294 trips along the Yiwu-Madrid line, carrying 24,466 TEU containers, up 117.1 percent year-on-year.

Carlos Santana, who is responsible for the company operating the Yiwu-Madrid line in Spain, said that railway transport has been proven to be a bridge of strengthening anti-pandemic cooperation, while deepening friendship between the two countries.