Figures for China’s newly launched coal freight railway raise serious questions about its effectiveness.

The Haoji Railway was designed to help solve one of China’s fundamental energy problems in 2008. Unequal energy resource distribution in the country has left some electricity poor regions craving resources, while other regions with resources have been hounded by excess capacity.

When the idea of constructing a 1,813-kilometer (1,127-mile) freight line, running from Kholbolji in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region to Ji’an, Jiangxi province came up at a government planning meeting in 2008, the plan seemed to offer a way of streamlining coal transportation costs by moving the commodity through the middle of the country. The railway was created to haul the fossil fuel from a region in northern China that at the time was home to 69.9% of domestic coal production to an inland area that didn’t produce much of its own coal.

More than 10 years and 193 billion yuan ($27.55 billion) in the making, the Haoji Railway started running on Sept. 28 to much fanfare, with the state-run China Daily reporting that the project would ensure Central China’s energy security and give an economic boost to localities along the line.

However, freight volume data from the line’s first month of operations raises the question of whether there will be enough demand to support a railway designed to haul more than 200 million tons of coal a year, or roughly 547,000 tons a day. In its first month up and running, the Haoji Railway transported 35,000 tons a day on average, according to Daqin Railway Co. Ltd., one of its shareholders.

Read the full story later today on Caixin.com

Contact reporter Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com)