Starting from July 25, the China-Laos Railway has a new train schedule. The Kunming to Vientiane international passenger train journey, originally taking 10 and a half hours, has been reduced to approximately 9 and a half hours. The travel time is shorter by over 1 hour, significantly improving the customs clearance efficiency.
Opening international passenger services on April 13, the 1,035-kilometer cross-border railway, a landmark project of the Belt and Road Initiative, allows passengers to travel from Kunming to Vientiane in nine hours 26 minutes now, including inspections at customs clearance stations at the respective borders.
This improvement is due to the increased personnel and equipment by customs and related departments at the Mohan entry-exit border checkpoint. Their collaborative efforts to improve the customs clearance process have resulted in a reduction of entry and exit time from 1.5 hours to 1 hour. The overall clearance time has now been reduced to about 2 hours compared to previous procedures.
The China-Laos Railway has transported 42,000 passengers from 49 countries since the launch of its service on April 13.
