HOHHOT, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A new freight train service linking north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region with the Iranian city of Bam, was launched Tuesday morning.

A freight train departed from a logistics park in Inner Mongolia Tuesday morning and is expected to arrive in Bam in 15 days.

The journey covers around 9,000 km, but the travel time between the two cities will be shortened by 20 days compared with sea transportation.

The train is carrying 41 containers of auto parts, machinery, and equipment, worth around 10 million yuan (1.5 million U.S. dollars).

In May, a freight train service was launched from Bayannur, Inner Mongolia to Tehran, Iran's capital.

The routes are part of the China-Europe freight rail service network. As of August 24, 10,000 freight trains have run since the network began operation in March 2011.

A total of 77 China-Europe freight trains left Inner Mongolia in the first half of this year, increasing 305.3 percent year-on-year. The number of return trains reached 41 during the same period, with a 31.3 percent year-on-year growth.