China Railway Corp, a spin-off of the former Ministry of Railways (MOR), has announced its decision to develop the high-speed rail express business in a bid to make gains in the country’s logistics market. Currently in China, about 80% of express deliveries are carried out on the road, 15% via air and 5% via railway and other modes of transport, according to Hong Houxing, Analyst with Anbang Logistics. Sun Zhang, Professor at the Urban Mass Transit Railway Research Institute at Shanghai’s Tongji University, said the proportion of rail express’ share in the country’s logistic market only counted for about 1%. “Express delivery by rail will grow for sure in the long run as it’s faster compared to road transportation and costs less than cargo flights,” said Hong, adding that air freight is also believed to be more vulnerable to weather conditions. “Take the trail of high-speed rail delivery between Guangzhou in Guangdong province to Changsha in Hunan province launched last year as example – the cost is CNY1.5 per kilo, 25% less than delivering by air,” he said. Hong said that airfreight is most suited for long-distance express deliveries that need to travel more than 1,000 km; rail is most suited for deliveries in a radius from 500 to 1,000 km; and delivery vans are most suited for deliveries in a 500 km radius. Though distances between Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou are under 500 km, Hong still believed the new Nanjing-Hangzhou and Hangzhou-Ningbo lines would reshape the country’s logistics landscape as they are part of the essential rail routes to link cities in the Yangtze River Delta to Fujian and Hainan provinces in the south. Prof Sun said railways could be used for cargo transport at night. Moreover, new high-speed services free traditional trains for cargo transport and increase transportation capacity for commodities such as coal, steel, rice, oil and ore.