On July 1, Beijing time, the transshipment yard completed at Vientiane South Station of China-Laos Railway was officially put into operation, where the first batch of cross-border container cargo was reloaded for transfer from the standard-gauge railway to the meter-gauge railway, before heading for Laem Chabang Port, Thailand. This marks the railway interconnection among China, Laos, and Thailand, and a more convenient and smooth international logistics channel of land-sea intermodal transport.
According to the Department of International Cooperation of CHINA RAILWAY, due to the different track gauges between China-Laos Railway built with the international standard gauge (1,435 mm) and the meter-gauge railways in Thailand (1,000 mm), transshipment is essential for interconnection of freight transport between these two track systems. Goods need to be unloaded from freight trains and reloaded onto the trains parked on the track of a different gauge. Connecting the freight yard at Vientiane South Station of China-Laos Railway in the north end and Thanaleng Station of the meter-gauge railway in Laos southward, this transshipment yard invested and built by Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. at Vientiane South Station is configured with one standard-gauge track and 2 meter-gauge track for transshipment operations. It is designed to accommodate concurrent reloading operations with 25 meter-gauge wagons to and from Thailand, with an annual transshipment capacity of about 800,000 tons.
The completion of this transshipment yard at Vientiane South Station makes railways interconnected among China, Laos and Thailand. Over such interconnected railways, the cross-border freight trains running on China-Laos Railway can reach the logistics distribution centers northward at Chengxiang Railway Station in Chengdu, Tuanjiecun Railway Station in Chongqing, Xinzhu Railway Station in Xi’an and more other destinations, and connect with the CRE trains. They can also run southward to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, and Laem Chabang Port via the meter-gauge railway connecting Laos and Thailand. This international logistics channel for land-sea intermodal transport will become more convenient and smooth.
The completion and operation of this transshipment yard at Vientiane South Station will further enhance the role of China-Laos Railway in influencing and boosting the development of regions along the line, improve the efficiency of international through traffic transport between China and the ASEAN countries, and reduce the cross-border logistics cost. The transport duration from Kunming of China to Laem Chabang Port in Thailand is about 1 day shorter than that of road transport, and the transport cost is reduced by more than 20%. It is expected to attract more than 300,000 tons of cross-border goods annually, such as agricultural and sideline products, as well as rubber, transported from Thailand to China via China-Laos Railway, which will provide reliable transport capacity support for the construction of the China-Laos Economic Corridor and a China-ASEAN community with a shared future.
Since its opening to traffic, China-Laos Railway manifested its great potential in passenger and freight transport. As of June 30, a total of 4 million passengers were transported, including a ridership of 520,000 passengers in the Lao section, and 4.94 million tons of goods were delivered cumulatively, including 820,000 tons of cross-border goods.
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