A freight train set off on Tuesday from the city of Chengdu (Sichuan Province, south-west China) to the Turkmen city of Sarahs as part of the ‘China–Central Asia’ rail freight programme. This was reported by the news website Turkmenportal.

This is now the second direct rail route between Chengdu and Turkmenistan to have been launched since the start of the year.

Regular freight services between Chengdu and the countries of Central Asia have been operating since 2014. Initially, the network covered two destinations — Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Tashkent (Uzbekistan). Since then, the list of destinations has expanded to include Astana, Bishkek, Dushanbe and Sarahs, which, according to local authorities, has significantly improved the connectivity of logistics chains between Chengdu and Central Asia.