Changsha's railway freight station Xianing Freight Yard will become a modern railway logistics market and its freight capacity will get tripled upon the completion of a renovation project two years later.

The first phase project of Xianing Freight Yard, which had cost 2.5 billion yuan ($386 million) and covers an area of 880 mu (58.67 hectares), was completed and started operation as the new home of the former Changsha North Railway Station in January 2012. At present, it has an annual freight capacity of 5 million metric tons. The five cargo lines in the yard stretch more than 4,200 meters and could handle 180 carts of different goods in various loading methods at the same time. According to Ding Yabing, plant manager of Changsha Freight Center Xianing Logistics Plant, the yard is also equipped with a container yard of nearly 20,000 square meters and modern warehouse of 18,000 sq m, capable of storing goods of 15,000 tons at once.

The improvement of the freight capacity has brought commercial opportunities and goods sources for the provincial capital. In late October 2014, the first regular cargo train linking Central China's Hunan province and Europe (Changsha-Duisburg) departed from Xianing, opening a new transport route for the import and export between Hunan and Europe. "Now 12 provinces and cities in China have opened the freight transport rail to Europe and the freight volume of the Changsha line ranks fifth among them," said Yan Minghui, an official from the Changsha Freight Center.

The yard has been established next to the Changsha New Port along Xiangjiang River and the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway. It is the only rail freight hub integrating transport means of highway, waterway and railway in Changsha.

It exploits fullest to its location advantages and cooperates with Changsha New Port and Yueyang Chenglingji Port to provide railway-waterway combined transport services, which significantly lowered logistics costs for clients such as Hengyang Valin Steel Tube. Given the higher costs of highway transport, the demands for railway transport have been greatly enhanced. Apart from bulk transport of steel, mineral and coal, the yard now also serve Hunan car makers such as Geely, Changfeng Group and FAW-Volkswagen for vehicle transport. In 2015, the freight yard completed 3,290 carts of delivery and achieved transport income exceeding 4.8 million yuan.

According to He Zhenghui, principal of the yard's second phase construction project, which has started in January 2016, the freight capacity will be tripled upon the completion of the project in the mid of 2019. The annual freight capacity is expected to reach 17 million tons in the long run. The second stage project will add various special transport lines such as cold chain, special cargo and non-coal materials logistics to further complete the yard's functions. In addition, a 22-storey comprehensive building will be constructed to introduce customs, commodity inspection, and bank desks as well as logistics enterprises for clients to finish all the logistics links in one stop.