Germany and China have proposed a freight service between Hamburg and Beijing that would take half the sea travel time of 40 days, reports the state-owned China Daily, with a container freight train having left Beijing on Wednesday 9 January in a trial run to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed service.

The container train carrying Chinese electrical appliances, clothes, shoes and ceramic tiles is scheduled to arrive in Hamburg in 18 days. Once the train completes its journey the countries will analyse the route to see how operations can be improved.

The freight service is expected to run on existing railway lines in China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany.

Under an agreement signed by the six countries, they will simplify customs and border checks and identify other means to minimise delays as the train moves across borders.

The report quoted Zheng Mingli, chairman of China Railway Container Transport, as saying that "Barring any complications, a scheduled container train should be shuttling between China and Germany in a year's time."