The train, which had been carrying 41 containers ranging from wine to medical equipment, traveled some 10,000km across 10 countries to arrive in the capital of China’s Sichuan province. It began its inaugural journey on 4 April. 

CFL Multimodal strategy director, Barbara Chevalier, in an interview with Wort, confirmed that “everything is going according to plan” and that “the data transmitted by the sensors placed on the containers indicate that no test goods seem to have undergone unexpected vibrations and shocks”.

According to Hellenic Shipping News, there was in 2018 a 35% increase in China-Europe-China rail transit compared to one year prior, a total of some 350 twenty foot equivalent units (TEU), a measure commonly used in the industry for containter transport.