Since the end of August, four trains have passed along the new route. Trains leave Urumqi, cross the Chinese-Kazakh border through the Khorgos/Altynkol checkpoint and proceed to the destination stations: Chukursai in Tashkent and Burundai near Almaty. The average travel time is nine days.
The FESCO Caravan Shuttle service was launched in July 2026 with departures from Xi'an, followed by Chengdu. Urumqi became the third departure point. The city is located in the western part of China and serves as a trade and logistics hub for the northern belt of China, which makes it a convenient point of cargo consolidation before shipment to Central Asia.
"The launch of shipments from Urumqi in addition to shipments from Xi'an and Chengdu allows us to expand our presence in the western part of China and offer additional shipping options to shippers in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. We see the potential of this area and intend to ensure shipments on a regular basis, focusing on customer demand," said Maxim Bukhanov, General Director of FESCO Central Asia.
Starting from October 2026, trains from Urumqi will be formed once a month. The frequency may increase depending on the load: the company is focused on customer demand.
The service is designed for a wide range of products: consumer goods, industrial products, equipment and components. In addition to rail transportation, FESCO offers cargo collection in China and car delivery to customer warehouses in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — the door-to-door scheme is available as a single service.
For Russian importers operating through Central Asia as a transit corridor, the arrival of a regular train from Urumqi expands the choice of loading points in China. The western provinces of China are a major manufacturing and transshipment hub, and direct rail access from there to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan reduces the shoulder of road transportation to the main route. The next step is to increase the frequency of shipments, which the company will link to the actual cargo flow.
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