A dedicated rail service has begun moving coal from southwestern China's Guizhou to neighboring Sichuan, shifting the cross-provincial power coal corridor from long-haul trucking to combined road-rail transport.

The first dedicated train under the "Guizhou coal to Sichuan" road-to-rail program departed on September 17, 2026, according to the operator. The service marks a key turning point for the corridor, which had long relied on highway transport.

Guizhou, known as the "coal sea of Southwest China", has proven coal reserves exceeding 500 million tonnes, more than the combined reserves of the other 12 southern provinces. Coal-bearing areas account for over 40% of the province's land, with 74 of its 86 counties producing coal.

Sichuan, by contrast, has limited coal reserves, thin seams and high sulfur and ash content, making extraction difficult, costly and polluting. The province has long depended on external supply, mainly from Guizhou and Shaanxi, due to weak self-sufficiency, structural supply tightness and seasonal imbalances.

Previously, Guizhou coal moved to Sichuan mainly by long-haul road, constrained by transport capacity, weather and road conditions. Extreme conditions such as heavy rain and freezing often disrupted deliveries, making logistics costs difficult to control.

Under the new model, coal is first trucked from Jinsha in Guizhou via the Gujin expressway to the Longshanzhen East station on the Xuda railway, loaded onto trains and shipped directly to dedicated lines at major power plants in southern Sichuan. This forms a "short-haul road plus rail trunk" intermodal system.

The Xuda railway is the key carrier of the shift. The roughly 86-km local freight line links southern Sichuan with northern Guizhou. It connects westward to the Xuyong station on the Longxu railway and eastward to Dacun town in Gulin county, linking north to the national Chengdu-Chongqing trunk line and reserving a southern connection to the New Western Land-Sea Corridor.

In April 2026, the Xuda railway launched "one-ticket through" national rail freight service, enabling "one waybill, one processing, network-wide access", laying the institutional and network groundwork for the dedicated train.

Compared with all-road transport, the intermodal model significantly improves resilience to extreme weather, cuts comprehensive logistics costs by about 3-5% and raises transport capacity by about 200-300%.

The project aligns with national efforts to shift bulk cargo from road to rail and optimize transport structure. It supports a Sichuan provincial plan to lower social logistics costs and energy supply coordination between Sichuan and Guizhou, opening a major combined road-rail supply corridor for Guizhou coal into Sichuan.

It also marks a landmark practice in Sichuan's local railway "one-ticket through" reform enabling cross-regional material supply, offering a model for multimodal transport in the adjacent Sichuan-Guizhou region.

The dedicated train achieves "one-ticket through" by removing the institutional barrier of ticket transfers between local railways and national rail, enabling "one waybill, one processing, network-wide access".

Operator Shudao Railway Operation Group has upgraded freight infrastructure and built an integrated supply chain of "mine consolidation - short-haul gathering - dedicated train direct delivery", achieving seamless links among coal sources, stations and transport capacity.

A company official said the group will use the inaugural service as a springboard to make Guizhou coal deliveries to Sichuan regular and scaled up, leverage the Longshanzhen East station as a hub, expand cargo categories under the "one-ticket through" advantage and deepen cross-regional logistics coordination.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said promoting cross-regional power coal road-to-rail transport is a necessary choice for implementing Sichuan-Guizhou energy supply coordination, optimizing transport structure and pursuing green low-carbon development, as well as a strategic lever for safeguarding regional energy security and stable economic operation.

The Xuda railway was completed and opened to traffic in December 2021. It is a Class III single-track national freight railway mainly carrying coal and ore. Its western end links to the Xuyong station on the Longxu railway, which is undergoing electrification and capacity expansion that will further boost the entire corridor's transport capacity.

The project proposal for the Dacun-Zunyi railway was approved in July 2026. Once built, it will connect to Zunyi in Guizhou, forming a freight corridor from southern Sichuan through Guizhou to the Beibu Gulf in Guangxi.