The overland route to get Chinese goods to Central Asia, the Caucasus or Europe is complicated. You can put your freight on trains, but there are border crossings, a variety of rail fees, track gauges and other challenges to be overcome. Despite that, China and Iran have grown rail transportation by 2.6 times in early 2025 and launched a new rail route recently. Why are they pursuing this?
The first freight train from Xi’an, China, recently arrived in Tehran, the capital city of Iran. It is no shocker novelty, since there are trains making their way from China to Iran already. Yet, it is a new route, a strengthening of overland connectivity from China’s main rail hub for westward shipments.
Cross-continental rail logistics remain complicated, but are a seemingly attractive option nonetheless. The CEO of the Aprin Dry Port in Tehran, which received the incoming train from China, sees plenty of benefit.
Speed, money and sanctions
For example, he points out that trains are much faster than ships. Whereas a ship would take 30 days to reach Iran, the Xi’an – Tehran train covered the entire distance in only 15 days. Moreover, the Tehran Times has called rail “the most suitable, closest, safest, and cheapest option for China’s access to markets in West Asia and Europe”, based on expert insights.
However, speed and money are not the only factors that count. Iran and China are both motivated to find more secure trade routes, meaning less exposed to American naval power. After all, the American navy remains the dominant force at sea, and the White House is considering a plan to inspect Iranian ships to block maritime oil shipments, Reuters reported in March. The US has instated far-reaching sanctions against Iran, limiting its ability to fuel its economy through trade.
China – Europe
Despite not being subject to those same sanctions, China has similar reasoning. It also wants to maintain connections to foreign markets (importantly, Europe, for which Iran can be a transit country) to keep the money flowing into its coffers. Having a viable overland route makes logistics less vulnerable, in case maritime routes are not, or less, available. So when in pertains to Iran, China can better guarantee oil imports.
In line with those interests, countries are now putting together plans to facilitate greater trade flows via the rails. For example, Iran and key transit country Turkmenistan are reportedly working on a framework to grow the annual rail freight turnover from 1,6 million tonnes to 4 million tonnes annually. To make that happen, Iran has identified the Sarajs, Lotfabad, and Incheburun border crossings as locations to “resolve a set of problems”.
Importantly, six key countries on the China–Iran–Europe route have recently come together in Tehran to discuss rail logistics. “The event became an important step in the development of multilateral cooperation to form an effective transport corridor China – Kazakhstan – Uzbekistan – Turkmenistan – Iran – Türkiye – Europe”, Kazakh Railways commented in the aftermath of the meeting.