Chongqing- Carrying 40 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of local food and agricultural machinery, a cross-border train of the China-Laos Railway departed from Chongqing Tuanjiecun Station in Southwestern China Saturday and will arrive in Vientiane, Laos, in four days.

Unlike the previous trains, this one adopts the new mode of railway express, which is the first outbound train of the China-Laos Railway in the New International Land-sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC) using the railway express mode.  

On May 20, a train with the railway express mode was released through the Mohan port and arrived in Chongqing successfully. The whole journey was shortened by 24 hours, as a mark of the China-Laos Railway of the ILSTC (Chongqing - Vientiane) taking the lead in the two-way railway express era.

The railway express is the mode of the railway inbound and outbound fast customs clearance. This new regulatory business model is issued by the General Administration of Customs in a bid further to open up the international railway transportation and logistics channel and improve the efficiency of railroad import and export cargo transportation and customs clearance facilitation. 

The use of railway express mode can save 24 hours of customs clearance time and shorten the overall running time of 1-2 days. A single box can also save costs of more than 200 yuan.

The railway express mode reduces customs clearance procedures for customers, making the import and export of goods more smoothly, said a representative of the New Land-sea Corridor Operation Co., Ltd.

Previously, after the departure of the customs clearance, they would be checked at the exit port. This will generate more fees for customs declaration, transfer boxes, and venues and increase the port detention time by about 1-2 days. With the railway express mode, the train can submit an application to the customs at the place of origin. A series of procedures like declaration, inspection, manifest merge, and release can be all completed at one-stop. They'll no longer need customs clearance procedures at the exit port for immediate release.

This railway express train is a specific initiative to support the ILSTC China-Laos Railway to enhance customs clearance efficiency and the international supply chain with the cooperation of customs of Chongqing and Kunming, jointly operated by the New Land-sea Corridor Operation Co., Ltd. and the China Railway International Multimodal Transport Co., Ltd.

The railway express mode eases the pressure of customs clearance at ports and further opens the international logistics channel, accelerating the efficient operation of international trains of the ILSTC. It ensures the safety and stability of the international industry chain and supply chain, playing a pivotal role in promoting the connectivity between China and foreign countries.

Since its operation in December 2021, the China-Laos Railway (Chongqing - Vientiane) has carried a total volume exceeding 80 trains of 1,000 TEUs. The cargo value has exceeded 300 million yuan (about 44.8 million U.S. dollars). With the stable growth of the monthly transportation volume, the goods have radiated to Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, and other Indo-China Peninsula countries, continuing to expand to the Eurasian continent.