A railway route dedicated to transporting goods between Chongqing and Shenzhen in Guangdong province has recently gone into service. Freight trains can now reach Yantian terminal from Chongqing in 53-and-a-half hours, down from 62-and-a-half hours, according to Chongqing municipal government.

The route was formed by restructuring existing railways and involved little construction or investment, said Mu Huaping, deputy head of Chongqing’s commission of economy and information technology.

Exporting products to Europe via Shenzhen is much quicker than doing so via Shanghai, and consequently the time saving on the rail route could have important benefits for manufacturers in Chongqing.

“The launch of the route is a milestone in building Chongqing into an international laptop-manufacturing hub,” Mayor Huang Qifan said.

Hewlett-Packard and Foxconn Technology signed a deal in August 2009 to jointly invest US$3bn to build laptop manufacturing bases in Chongqing.