Recently, the first "Piraeus-Sofia" land-sea express train loaded with 29 COSCO SHIPPING containers departed from the PCT terminal of Piraeus Port in Greece. After more than 40 hours of driving, the train successfully arrived in Drago, a suburb of Sofia, Bulgaria. Manchang Station. Under the traditional mode of transportation, the goods sent from the port of Piraeus to Sofia usually need to be transported to the port of Thessaloniki in northern Greece via a branch line, and then transferred to trucks to be transported by road to the western region of Bulgaria. After the "Beijing-Sofia" land-sea express train was opened, the delivery date of the goods on this route was about 6 days earlier than the traditional transportation mode, which greatly improved the logistics efficiency.

The smooth operation of the first train has filled the gap in the market of Piraeus Port directly connecting to western Bulgaria. Since then, the "China-Europe Land-Sea Express Line" business has radiated to Bulgaria, forming a sea-rail combined transport cycle linking 10 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. It is reported that the first "Bigang-Sofia" land-sea express train is not only supported by major customers such as Hisense and Sinker, but also favored by the majority of small and medium customers.

The deployment of the “Big Port-Sofia” train line lasted for one year. COSCO Shipping Lines, European company, PCT terminal, land-sea express company and other units under COSCO SHIPPING Group have fully coordinated and visited Bulgaria for many times. Close coordination and communication between suppliers and other parties; all units worked hand in hand to solve the problem, and successfully obtained the approval of the Bulgarian Customs in April 2021, and obtained relevant qualification certification; Chinese and foreign employees worked hard to promote various tasks, and finally ensured that the first train was listed Shipment will be on time on May 5 as planned. The "China-Europe-Sea Express Line" is an important channel connecting Europe and Asia that has been newly developed in recent years. It realizes land-sea combined transportation, that is, after shipping containers arrive at the port of Piraeus in Greece, they can be replaced by railways and reach Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and other Central and Eastern European countries through the "China-Europe-Europe Sea Express". Currently, it radiates the hinterland of Central and Eastern Europe. This country is the third trade channel from the Far East to Central and Eastern Europe, providing convenient and low-cost logistics solutions for more Chinese exports to the hinterland of Central and Eastern Europe.

In 2020, the "China-Europe-Europe-Sea Express Line" has completed a total of 122,000 TEUs, an increase of 47% year-on-year; a total of 1,937 trains have been shipped, and a total of 679 customers have been shipped. In 2021, although the “China-Europe Land-Sea Express” business will be adversely affected by many factors such as the epidemic closure, extreme weather, terminal congestion, and canal accidents, the business will still maintain rapid growth. As of April 30, a total of 634 trains were issued, a year-on-year increase of 16.5%, and the cumulative completed cargo volume was 39,935 TEU, a year-on-year increase of 20.5%.Editor/Xing Wentao