Kazakhstan's transport minister, Marat Karabayev, said that in the first nine months of this year, freight traffic along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) surged by 70% to 3.4 million tons. Among them, container freight volume tripled compared to the same period last year, reaching 34,600 TEUs. He also stressed that since the beginning of the year, the volume of container transit from China has increased more than 20 times. The chairman of the Azerbaijan Railways Corporation, Rovshan Rustamov, announced last month that more than 210 container trains or more than 420,000 tons of cargo were being transported from China to Azerbaijan through the Middle Corridor, including imported and transit goods. Rovshan Rustamov said that this year's goal is to receive 300 container trains from China, and the medium and long-term goal is 1,000. "In March this year, the first container train from the port of Xi'an, China to Azerbaijan was delivered in just 11 days," he said. Container trains from China to Azerbaijan arrive in an average of 8-10 days, and trains to Georgian ports arrive in 12 days on average. By the end of this year, it is planned to send about 300 container trains from China through the Middle Corridor, equivalent to about 30,000 TEUs. He noted that another branch of the "Middle Corridor" is forming on the eastern side of the Caspian Sea, passing through China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, combining railways, maritime routes and highways. In order to effectively organize coordination and overall development along the route, the participating countries gathered in Baku last month to discuss the creation of a collegiate body called the "International Association of Eurasian Transport Routes".
      FESCO Scheduled Block Train Program - Chengdu to Moscow via MongoliaAs part of FESCO's Cross-Border Block Asia (FALB) service, FESCO Transport Group has launched a regular container block train from Chengdu (China) to Moscow via Mongolia with a transit time of 28 days. It is reported that the first train of the new line has already arrived in Russia. The main cargo carried by this train is consumer goods, which is transported using FESCO's own car board and can provide customers with door-to-door delivery methods. The next train is scheduled to depart on October 25. In the future, it is planned to send one column per week. According to FESCO Group, Chengdu is a major transportation hub in Sichuan Province and the entire southwest of China, as well as a major industrial center for the production of women's shoes. FESCO Asia Land Cross-Border Block Train Service (FALB) provides transportation services from Xi'an, Qingdao, Shanghai, Xiamen, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Ningbo, Wuhan, Hefei and Suzhou in China to Russia and the CIS countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) via the border crossings of Naushki, Dostyk, Altinkol and Zabaikalsk.
      Cover image credit: Government of Kazakhstan website