E-commerce trains in the Greater Bay Area have achieved new speeds in "air-rail combined transport"

China News Service, Guangzhou, November 12 (Guo Jun, Liu Jihui) Since November, the Shilong cargo yard of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway Logistics Center of the State Railway Guangzhou Bureau has been brightly lit all night. Next to the telescopic belt conveyor, packages were automatically circulated one by one and loaded quickly, and the X107 e-commerce train departed on time. This is the tenth consecutive year that the center has served the “Double Eleven” e-commerce golden week transportation.

The reporter learned from the center that the biggest change this year is the implementation of the new air-rail combined transport channel. In October 2026, the "Shanghai Freight Air-rail Combined Transport" project was officially announced, and the X107 train has become a new business card on this new channel: it departs from Shilong, Dongguan, and arrives in Minhang, Shanghai that night, running at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour; upon arrival, the cargo is immediately transferred to Shanghai Pudong International Airport to complete air-side customs clearance, security inspection, and panel assembly. It can be loaded onto the plane and fly to all parts of the world the next day.

The "accuracy" of main railway lines and the "remoteness" of air transportation are connected on the same timeline. Relying on this model, the cargo source organization has changed from "waiting for goods" in the past to "arranging goods" - fixed carriages and fixed times. Customers push back the packing node according to the flight cut-off time, and "book the space according to the flight and the flight according to the aircraft." The categories of goods source have also been upgraded. From the initial daily necessities to today's small household appliances and 3C accessories, cross-border e-commerce goods have become the "protagonist".

In order to ensure smooth express delivery during the peak season, the center proactively links up with major logistics companies before the holidays, dynamically follows up on daily delivery plans, and predicts peak trends in advance. Judging from the supply of goods, this year’s goods yard has obvious characteristics of being small-sized and life-oriented, with daily necessities, clothing, shoes and hats, home care, maternal and infant products, beauty products and other daily necessities accounting for the majority. In response to the pressure of collection and distribution, the freight yard has optimized the automobile transport connection process, implemented vehicle reservations and time-shifted peak operations, and the "door-to-station, station-to-door" connection plan is accurately matched with the train times to avoid congestion at the entrance of the freight yard.

The volume of goods increased and operations remained stable. At present, the efficiency of intelligent security inspection in the cargo yard has been increased by 15%, and the entire process of security inspection, loading and unloading, and short-term barging is compressed within 6 hours. In 2027, it is planned to implement the belt conveyor directly connected to the sorting line, and the loading and unloading efficiency is expected to increase by more than 20%.