Turkish Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Enver İskurt announced that the travel time of China-Europe freight trains from China to Türkiye via the "Middle Corridor" has been reduced to 15 days.
At the ceremony held in İstanbul, two freight trains from China departed from İstanbul towards Lodz in Poland and Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
İskurt stated that one of the trains departed from Chengdu, carrying 508 tons of cargo, and reached Kars by using the "Middle Corridor" over the Alataw Pass in Xinjiang.
Previously, this period often exceeded 20 days due to customs procedures and weather conditions in the Caspian Sea.
İskurt stated that the shortening of the transportation time of China-Europe freight trains to Türkiye is an important step forward for China, Türkiye, and Europe, and that their goal is to reduce the time between the Alataw Pass and Kars to 10 days.
China and Türkiye had signed a memorandum of understanding in 2015 to align the "Belt and Road" initiative with the "Middle Corridor" plan.