The
Jinghe–Yining–Khorgos railway was completed in late 2009 and as of 2012 provides train service from
Ürümqi and
Yining to Khorgos. Passenger trains from Ürümqi started on 1 July 2010; however, they initially only ran to Yining and not all the way to Khorgos. In December 2013, one of the daily Ürümqi-Yining passenger trains was extended to Khorgos. The travel time from Khorgos to Yining then was just over an hour. In December 2011, a railway from the Khorgos border crossing to Zhetygen terminal (near
Almaty) was completed; on 2 December 2012, the tracks from the Chinese and Kazakhstan sides of the borders were connected. For some months, the railway on the Kazakh side was still operating in a test mode. The railway border crossing (
port of entry) at Khorgos became operational in the late 2012; the first regular trains from the two countries crossed the border on 22 December 2012. The railway border crossing is expected to handle up to 15 million tons of freight per year initially, the volume rising to 30 million tons per year in the long run, Khorgos is a major
break of gauge interchange. 41-ton
gantry cranes are used to move shipping containers between
standard gauge Chinese trains and
Russian gauge Kazakh trains, ==Economy==