Effective September 1st, the Sankt Gallen, Switzerland based InterRail Group and China Railway Container Transport Co. Ltd. (CRCT), Beijing, an affiliate of China Railways, signed a general agency contract for the regions Europe, Central Asia and Iran.
The InterRail Group has been active for many years in rail traffics from/to and through the CIS and counts among the leading train operators in the China-Europe-China traffic. Currently, four to five container block trains per week are dispatched in each direction. Before the end of September, the first train between China and Iran is going to run, at this time by using the intermodal option via the Kazakh port of Aktau. Block train connections between China and Central Asia, e.g. to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, are also part of the InterRail Group’s product range.
The contract between the two companies regulates the services that InterRail offers for CRCT in Europe, Central Asia and Iran. The focus is on forwarding and logistics services for rail traffic in the Eurasian area. With a special emphasis on involving the InterRail-operated Ostwind / Westwind container block train traffics. Operator services, warehousing, door-door transports and container management are part of the contract.
In return, CRCT performs these services for InterRail in China. Moreover, InterRail and companies allied to the Group, will share their experiences and offers for combined rail/sea traffics as well as for multimodal transports via the new Silk Road.