QINGDAO -- China officially launched the pilot rail-road intermodal transport for export goods on Oct 16, as a new move to promote the dual circulation through domestic and international corridors.  

At the multimodal transport supervision center of Shanghai Cooperation Organization economic and trade cooperation demonstration zone in Qingdao city, east China's Shandong Province, the first shipment declared for the new rail-road intermodal transport mode has been loaded.
Under the new transport mode, the cargo carriers only need to submit a multimodal transport application for export goods at the place of customs declaration, and then they can transport the goods to overseas destinations without making any more declarations.
China's major cross-border cargo transport hubs, including Shandong, Shaanxi, Xinjiang and Yunnan, have begun receiving declarations for the pilot service.
The new service is expected to help rapidly integrate railway and road shipping capacity, improve the connection between different types of shipping, and promote cost reduction and efficiency increase of transportation and logistics.
The new transport mode can also give full play to the long distance and large capacity of railway transport and the flexibility and door-to-door service of road transport, to achieve rapid transit and seamless connection of goods transportation, reduce the waiting and loading and reloading time of goods, which will greatly improve the overall efficiency of shipping and enhance the resilience and stability of China's transport system.
The pilot project currently covers only rail-road combined transport, and is expected to be expanded to rail-sea, river-sea and land-air intermodal transport if it operates stably.