The China Railway Express (CRE) has made Malaszewicze, a small village in Poland, a crucial European rail gateway, serving 90 percent of CRE trains.
A staff member loads a cargo container of China Railway Express to a train in Malaszewicze, Poland, Oct. 15, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhou Nan)

WARSAW, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Malaszewicze, with a population of 4,000, is just a village in eastern Poland. However, logistics practitioners recognize it now as the country's most important transshipment port thanks to the China Railway Express (CRE) freight trains.

Statistics show that about 90 percent of the CRE trains pass through or arrive in Poland, and almost all trains from China enter the European Union (EU) through Malaszewicze, which is thus the bloc's de facto eastern rail gateway.

Barbara Wojcik has been active in the logistics industry for over 20 years. She works for Adampol S.A., a leading logistics enterprise specializing in multimodal solutions for general cargo and passenger vehicles, goods-handling and transport.

"We have one of the most professional terminals here in Malaszewicze, a 46-hectare duty-free zone, and 3,500 meters of rail," Wojcik told Xinhua. "We specialize in high quality multimodal logistical services, i.e. stuffing and unstuffing cars in containers and organizing end-to-end transportation."

A railway yard is seen in Warsaw, Poland on April 21, 2020. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/Xinhua)A railway yard is seen in Warsaw, Poland on April 21, 2020. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/Xinhua)

Wojcik, who is deputy director of Adampol's cargo department, said that "during the pandemic, it was the CRE that supported trade between China and Europe with its unique advantages."

"It was really hard to find an empty container," she said, pointing to a huge parking lot. "Back then, you could see a sea of cars there."

Pawel Moskala is general manager of Real Logistics. He started his business more than a decade ago and rode the tide when the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was proposed.

"The CRE is faster than sea transport and cheaper than air transport. It is designed to carry high-value commodities," he told Xinhua in his office in Wroclaw, one day after returning from a forum in Beijing on logistics cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries.

Photo taken on Sept. 29, 2021 shows cargo containers in Malaszewicze, Poland. (Xinhua/Zhang Zhang)

"China's electric vehicles, lithium batteries and solar cells are perfect for rail transportation," he said, adding that Europe's major car companies regularly use the CRE to transport cars they produce to China.

Wojcik said she was optimistic about the future of automotive trading between China and Europe. Adampol is currently planning new investments in railway transportation, she added.