The first automated terminal railway line for direct sea-rail intermodal transport is operational.

On July 29, accompanied by the sound of a long whistle, a freight train loaded with 35 containers slowly departed from the dedicated railway line at the Yuanhai Terminal in Xiamen, Fujian. This marked the commencement of operations for the nation's first automated terminal direct sea-rail intermodal dedicated line, achieving a historic breakthrough in spatial connectivity for sea-rail intermodal transport.

This dedicated railway line is 1,586 meters long, with an annual container throughput capacity of 250,000 TEUs and an annual bulk cargo throughput capacity of 250,000 tons. The line runs directly through the Yuanhai Terminal in Xiamen, perpendicular to the coastline, penetrating the core operational area of the terminal and located only 70 meters from the terminal's front edge. Goods can be directly loaded onto trains at the terminal for dispatch, effectively bridging the "last mile" of sea-rail intermodal transport.

Traditional terminal railway lines are mostly built on the outskirts of port areas, running parallel to the coastline. Trains cannot directly reach the terminal's front edge, requiring goods to be transferred twice between the railway yard and the terminal, which is both time-consuming and costly. Xu Chunguang, the project manager of the Yuanhai Terminal railway line, explained that this perpendicular coastline dedicated line upgrades the traditional "train-yard-ship" three-stage transfer process to a more efficient "train-ship" two-stage direct connection. By eliminating intermediate transfer steps, it not only significantly reduces cargo damage but also lowers the comprehensive logistics cost per container by more than 15%, while shortening the overall logistics time by 2 to 3 days.

Leveraging the extensive domestic and international trade route network of Xiamen Port, this dedicated line connects 21 ocean-going trunk routes and extends to railway corridors reaching inland regions such as Jiangxi, Hubei, and Sichuan. It is equipped with four automated rail-mounted gantry cranes and three parallel loading and unloading lines. The fully automated rail-mounted gantry cranes can automatically identify container numbers and remotely operate train positioning. With seamless information exchange between the railway and the terminal, ships can be efficiently connected upon arrival for rapid loading and unloading, achieving a "70-meter transfer and 9-minute interchange" for high-efficiency transshipment.