Vietnam Railways (VNR) held a ceremony on Wednesday to celebrate the first cargo train of this lunar year to leave from Song Than Station in the southern province of Binh Duong to Zhengzhou in China’s Henan Province.

The 21-car train transported farm produce, including fruits and food stored in nine shipping containers.

It is slated to arrive in Zhengzhou in 9-10 days.

VNR will operate one cargo train on the route per week, according to VNR general director Hoang Gia Khanh.

The VNR leader revealed that freight train services between Vietnam and neighboring China have increased over the past several years, with the volume of cargo continuously on the rise.

The Vietnamese government attaches great importance to international freight train services, according to Khanh, who also noted that Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh recently asked the Ministry of Transport to work with relevant agencies and localities to make the best use of the Vietnam-China freight train services, with an aim at increasing the amount of agro-forestry-fishery products transported by railway and easing congestion at border gates linking the two countries.

Khanh shared that Binh Duong was chosen to launch the first cargo train bound for China in the Year of the Dragon due to its reputation as one of southern Vietnam’s most dynamic localities.

Zhang Cun Wei, general director of the China-based Henan VTO Import-Export Company also spoke, sharing that Henan started cooperating with Vietnam’s Railway Transport and Trade JSC (Ratraco) to transport goods between Zhengzhou and Vietnamese localities since June last year.

Zhang suggested that VNR seek measures to shorten the time needed for cargo trains from Song Than Station to reach Dong Dang Station, located in Vietnam’s northern Lang Son Province, to 60 hours in order to enhance the competitiveness of international freight train services.

According to VNR, the Ministry of Transport is working on projects to upgrade Song Than Station, which is expected to become the largest freight train station in Vietnam and be capable of handling 3.5 million metric tons of cargo each year.

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