On 28 March 2007, an opening ceremony was held at the Ganzhou Railway Station to celebrate the first multi-modal inland cargo transportation service between Ganzhou and Shenzhen. Senior officials from the Ganzhou Municipal Government attended the ceremony.
A train will carry five containers loaded with machinery, furniture and garments from Ganzou to Yantian, which will then be shipped to Europe and the United States. This new service will help reduce transport costs typically incurred by an exporter.
Compared with road transport, the multi-modal transportation service has the advantages of transporting cargo in large volumes cost effectively and under high security. Considering the vast territories of inland China, the advantages of the multi-modal transportation service has been well recognised by governmental authorities and companies.
The Pingyan Railway is the dedicated rail link service of YICT, connecting both the Beijing-Kowloon line and the Beijing-Guangzhou line. With this rail link facility, YICT is able to extend its port services to the inland catchment areas of China, which include Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou. With the growing number of frequent shipping services calling at Yantian, plus its highly efficient terminal operations, more and more companies in inland China have chosen Yantian as their primary gateway for export cargo shipping.