At the opening ceremony of this year’s China-EU Business Meeting, in the city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province, Oct 14, it was announced that the city will be getting an express cargo train connection to Vladivostok and other Russian cities, even Moscow by late next month.

Previously unscheduled cargo trains were used for the service but this new line will cut both the time and the cost by a third.

During the start-up period, there will be no round-trip trains, just a single outbound trip from Harbin, explains Tu Xiaoyue, general manager of HAO Logistics Co, which runs the service, but about 1,000 tons of cargo in 50 containers will be sent to Russia every week.