General

"The construction of a powerful trade and transportation country and the high-quality development of the real economy cannot be separated from a reliable and stable logistics supply chain." On February 28, at the second rail-water intermodal transport development forum and the 2023RCEP trade and cross-border logistics seminar, Hu Yadong, president of the China Communications and Transportation Association, said that in the past three years, the entire logistics supply chain has faced great challenges and opportunities. With the active participation of railway, port, water transport and other entities, the container rail-water intermodal transport mode has achieved a countertrend growth, entered a more convenient, stable, efficient, intelligent and green high-quality development track, and strengthened the development of international trade.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Transport, in 2022, China's major ports will realize 8.75 million TEUs of container rail-water intermodal transport, an increase of 16% year on year, of which about 8.34 million TEUs will be realized in coastal areas, an increase of 14.3% year on year; The inland river realized about 410000 TEUs, with a year-on-year increase of 66%.

Hu Yadong said that the expansion of the scale of rail-water intermodal transport has strongly supported the high-quality development of the real economy, deeply served the construction of a new pattern of domestic and international dual-cycle, and accelerated the smooth implementation of the national low-carbon strategy. By participating in the construction of "Yangtze River Golden Waterway", "New Land and Sea Channel" and other transportation channels, MTR has also played an important role in serving the "the Belt and Road" construction, RCEP agreement and strengthening the development of international trade.

Qingdao Port is located at the crossroads of sea and land of the "the Belt and Road", and has good advantages in developing rail water intermodal transport. Up to now, there have been 70 sea rail intermodal lines and 31 inland ports in Qingdao Port, further enhancing its position as the bridgehead of the opening of the "the Belt and Road". In 2022, Qingdao's sea-rail intermodal container volume reached 1.9 million TEUs, ranking first in the country's coastal ports for eight consecutive years, and improving the level of international trade facilitation. For example, the opening and operation of the Henan Zhumadian-Qingdao Port Sea-Railway Combined Train has enabled more international trade import and export enterprises in Zhumadian City to enjoy high-quality, efficient, convenient and low-cost port services at their home, helping enterprises save transportation time and costs, and also promoting more Zhumadian products to go global.

Xu Zuyuan, former deputy minister of the Ministry of Transport, said: "For the regions along the river and inland, the operation of the rail-water intermodal train has extended the radiative driving capacity for the hinterland economy, fully played the advantages of collection and distribution, built a cargo distribution center, and built the former foreign trade value depression into a new highland for opening up."

"After years of development, the capacity of China's rail-sea intermodal transport service to the new pattern has been significantly improved, and has become a new driving force for economic and social development." Xu Zuyuan said that with the continuous improvement of the coverage of the inbound railway and the transformation of the transport organization mode, through the seamless connection of the railway yard and the waterway port, the transport efficiency has been significantly improved, and the impact of cargo transport on social transport has been reduced, which not only plays a role in the railway timing, location, and scheduling The quantitative advantage also gives full play to the advantages of large water transport volume and low price. The rapid development of container rail-water intermodal transport provides the necessary basic guarantee for the new development pattern of domestic and international double circulation.

Hu Yadong said that at present, the development of China's rail and water intermodal transport needs all parties to work together to strengthen cooperation, complement the weaknesses, and strengthen the development of international trade in terms of standardization, development of container-appropriate cargo sources, information exchange, construction of rail and water stations, and stable and reliable schedules.

Xu Zuyuan put forward several suggestions on the long-term development and planning of China's rail-water intermodal transport: focus on improving the coverage of railways in ports and parks, and optimize the collection and distribution system of ports and railway stations; Take the standardization of hot metal transportation equipment and information as the key research areas, and strive to achieve major breakthroughs in the short term; Increase the development of container-appropriate cargo sources, improve the traffic volume and scale with efficiency, and turn "first return customers" into "return customers" with services; Promote the construction of a unified platform, realize the effective connection of resources, and realize the "one game" of intermodal transport through platform interconnection; Give full play to the role of railway and water transport industry associations and think tanks to solve common problems; Keep up with the tide of digitalization and informatization, drive the rail-water intermodal transport with integrated innovation, and enable science and technology to build new momentum.

Zheng Pingbiao, deputy director of the Institute of Transport and Economics of the Chinese Academy of Railway Sciences, believes that digitalization is an important driving force for the high-quality development of rail-water intermodal transport. "At present, there is an urgent need to accelerate the construction of the digitalization of rail-water intermodal transport. Through digitalization and intellectualization, we can innovate the mode of transportation business and the content of product services, enhance the collaborative operation ability of different modes such as railway and water transport, realize the automation of operation, digitalization of management and intelligent decision-making, and improve the scale and service ability of rail-water intermodal transport," he said.

In order to better promote the construction of the digitalization of rail-water intermodal transport, Zheng Pingbiao said that it is necessary to break through the information exchange barriers between different industries, different modes and different regions, improve the rules and exchange standards for the opening of rail-water intermodal transport data, promote the docking and real-time exchange of information systems such as railways, ports and shipping companies, and improve the efficiency of port and rail cooperative operation and intermodal transport services, including further improving the content of data exchange of rail-water intermodal transport Standards for data exchange mode and data interface; In order to ensure the reasonable interests of different subjects in the whole process of rail and water intermodal transport, it is necessary to improve the operation mechanism of rail and water intermodal transport data marketization, promote the participation of multiple subjects and build a data sharing platform for rail and water intermodal transport, establish a sound and reliable multi-center data exchange framework for rail and water intermodal transport, and strengthen the development of international trade.