Austrian carrier expands railfreight services to China
The Rail Cargo Group (RCG), the railfreight arm of the Austrian ÖBB, is augmenting its rail transport offer to and from China as part of its TransFer service.
The first of these new trains started in Jinan in eastern China and arrived in Budapest in Hungary on Monday (27 April 2020). Among other cargo, the train delivered urgently needed health protection equipment such as masks, gloves and disinfectant wipes.
The train travelled through Ukraine. With a transit time of 12 to 14 days, this is the fastest direct East-West connection along the Silk Road, RCG said. The shuttle will run once a week in an initial phase, and twice a week as from the end of this year.
In addition to this connection, RCG's TransFer product Budapest-Xian offers a weekly direct link between China and Hungary via Poland, as well as one TransFer train per week from Xi'an (China) via Vienna (Austria) to Milan (Italy). (ben)