On April 17th 2024, after a year-long suspension, due to the joint efforts of the International Association “Trans-Caspian International Transport Route” (hereinafter referred to as the TITR Association) and "Xinjiang "COSCO Shipping Container Lines Co., Ltd.” container transportation of tomato paste has been resumed as part of a block train from Xinjiang (PRC) to the port of Naples (Italy) along the TITR route. The train solemnly departed from Jinghe Station at 11:30 a.m. local time.
The container train will proceed through the Khorgos-Altynkol railway border crossing on the Kazakh-Chinese border and arrive at the port of Aktau (Kazakhstan) on the Caspian Sea, where the containers will be loaded onto a feeder vessel owned by the Kazakh shipping company LLP “NMSC “Kazmortransflot” and delivered to the port of Baku (Alyat) in Azerbaijan. Further, following the railways of Azerbaijan and Georgia, the container block train will arrive at the port of Poti (Georgia). After arrival and processing at the port of Poti, the containers with tomato paste will be loaded onto the COSCO Shipping Container Lines vessel and then, following the Black and Mediterranean Seas, transit through the Greek port of Piraeus to the port of Naples in Italy.
The expected transit time for the train from Jinghe station to the port of Poti is 11 days; along the entire length of the specified multimodal route, a single transport document will be used - the SMGS consignment note.
It should be noted that the specialists of the Kazakhstan railway have developed a special schedule for the passage of container trains along the route Altynkol station - Aktau port, according to which the speed of container trains is about 1050 km/day, thanks to which trains cover this section of the route (3128 km) in 72 hours. Similar schedules for block trains are used on the railways of Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Service providers along the entire route of the block train from Altynkol station to the port of Poti are members of the International Trans-Caspian Transport Consortium (subsidiaries of regular members of the TITR Association) - “KTZ Express”, “ADY Container”, “GR Logistics and Terminlas”.
In the coming week, another block train with tomato paste is scheduled to depart from Urumqi to Italy along the TITR route. In addition, two container trains have been scheduled for May and June of this year, with a further increase in the number and frequency of their departures.
Since 2018, the TITR Association has been closely and successfully cooperating with Xinjiang COSCO Shipping Container Lines Co., Ltd on a project of multimodal rail-sea transportation from the XUAR of China to Italy along the TITR route. During the specified period of cooperation along the TITR route, the dispatch of more than 100 container block trains with tomato paste was organized and successfully implemented.