Increasing trade between China and Russia has prompted DHL to launch a an new intermodal service from Chengdu to Moscow via Poland. The new service comes as the outdated Trans-Siberian Railway fails to meet demand. Foreign trade between the two countries rose 11.2% to USD88.2 billion last year and is expected to rise to USD100 billion in 2015, before doubling to USD200 billion in 2020. However, logistical bottlenecks are becoming a drag on trade growth. The century-old Trans-Siberian Railway and the overloaded shipment facilities at the border city of Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia, account for 60% of the land transport between the two nations. DHL Global Forwarding started a weekly train-and-truck service from Chengdu to Moscow via Malaszewicze, Poland, on April 26. The dedicated freight train from Chengdu to Malaszewicze, dubbed the Chengdu Express, takes 14 days, followed by a truck service to Moscow in two to three days. This compares with at least 20 days via the Trans-Siberian Railway from China to Moscow, subject to delays. The punctuality of the western corridor from Chengdu was plus six hours or minus four hours while the trans-Siberian service could face delays of days, said Bruno Selmoni, head of road freight and multimodal, Asia Pacific, for DHL Global Forwarding. The company has operations on both railways. “We are looking into the Chengdu express train with a boarder perspective. Its potential is not just to Moscow but to the whole of Europe”, he said. DHL consolidated all the shipments from China in its cargo hub in Malaszewicze, from where it linked up with most European cities in two to three days by truck or train, Selmoni said. The train services are usually loaded with electronic goods from China and engineering machines on the way back. DHL has run an intermodal service from Shanghai to Moscow via the Trans-Siberian Railway since 2011, which it is still maintaining.