The China-Europe freight train waiting for departure at Xiangtang railway port in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, February 17, 2020. /Xinhua The China-Europe freight train waiting for departure at Xiangtang railway port in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, February 17, 2020. /Xinhua

Editor's note: Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. He writes on topics pertaining to China, the DPRK, Britain, and the U.S. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN. Xinhua News Agency reported on February 21 that the total volume of freight transported on China-Europe international trains expanded by 8.1 percent since the beginning of the year, amounting to 8.67 million tons of cargo, marking a 1.5 percent increase year on year. Director of international business for the China-Europe rail service Ma Hongying stated that the railway, originally conceived in 2011 as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, "played a crucial role in facilitating international logistics and developing foreign trade."

The growing success of the line appears to stem from a recent development from a month ago, which saw the railway line open a new route towards Poland's Baltic Sea port of Gdansk on a service now coined as "The Baltic train," a twice a week operation. The line has slashed the journey time from China to the Polish port from 40 days to 12 days, intensifying the pace of goods delivery between Britain and Scandinavian countries. The port is operated by the Polish company Adampol, which is now in talks with a number of automobile and timber manufacturers eager to expand their business on the route. This is a true Belt and Road success story. The China-Europe railway is a growing, long term and strategic investment which has handled a continental wide logistical problem, breaking down barriers and bringing countries together. What the Gdansk example illustrates is that this is not a one-way street for China's benefit or a "debt trap" but something that it is actively enhancing opportunities and capabilities of companies in Europe without political strings attached. This should not be interpreted as anything else other than a massive win for Poland's economy, cementing it as a facilitator of European trade. Eurasia is the world's largest landmass, with each end being staggeringly far apart. From a trade perspective, to get heavy cargo (thus excluding aviation) from one side to the other is deeply challenging and time consuming, as its shape and geography actively works as a hindering factor. Traditionally, if you want to ship goods from Asia's East Coast to Europe you are forced to "go round it" going all the way through the Indian ocean, up through the Red Sea, the Suez canal and then through the Mediterranean and past the Iberian peninsula. Alternative routes concern going all the way around Africa, or the even longer journey of across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal and then the Atlantic. There is no easy option.

A China-Europe freight train passes from Mongolia to China through the border in Erenhot City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, October 16, 2018. Xiong Tong/CGTN A China-Europe freight train passes from Mongolia to China through the border in Erenhot City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, October 16, 2018. Xiong Tong/CGTN