Attention, travelers: we can now cross Thailand and Cambodia by train
lovers of Southeast Asian we have a lot to celebrate, because the railway connecting Cambodia and Thailand was reopened on 22 april after it was closed for 45 years , saving us time and heat if we decide to visit these two countries by land. Residents will be even happier, because this new connection is sure to will improve tourism and trade.
As things are now, we can practically do this route if a few kilometers from the border of Thailand we take a taxi or a tuk tuk to the station of the border city aranyaprathet and we walked across until we caught another form of transportation to the other side, in Poipet , or vice versa. But there was no line to cross the countries because the roads in Cambodia were not optimal for it.
The train, ready to reach Poipet
The service for the public has not yet been announced . From the **Thailand tourism office** they confirm to Condé Nast Traveler Spain that some business still needs to be closed , What "the layout of the land and the training of personnel", both in Cambodia as in Thailand, although they will reach an agreement soon.
The Cambodian press has been more daring and has published that the train could start operating at the end of the year.
On the day of the line's inauguration, the prime ministers of both countries witnessed a signing ceremony at a border post before crossing by train from one country to another.
The couple got out of the car with their hands joined and were greeted by a crowd of people waiting for them waving the flags of both countries as a sign of pride. As Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen stated, this “it was a historic day” and thanked Thailand for its efforts to make it possible with financial assistance and the delivery of a four-car train.
Train on the tracks in Cambodia
Most of Cambodia's tracks are from the 1930s and were built by the French during the colonial era, while another of them, which linked the south between the capital Phnom Penh and the coastal Sihanoukville , was built after independence in the 1960s, with the assistance of France, West Germany, China and Australia, who donated the material.
But during the Vietnam War, the train tracks fell victim to repeated bombing and later, during the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s, eventually deteriorated, as this radical communist regime used them solely to transport Cambodians to labor camps.
The security of the country recovered late 90s when the guerrillas were defeated, but the restoration work after years of war and abandonment has been an arduous task. To date, other forms of transport have been used, such as vans, buses, taxis or tuk tuks , if the distances are not too long.
The train that will cross Thailand and Cambodia
Ingenious Cambodians also used a homemade solution for a while to get around the rails with a bamboo train that could be quickly assembled and disassembled, known as a norry. This method of transport consisted of a bamboo or wooden board , with a pair of axles with steel wheels, which was propelled with a motorcycle or river boat engine.
Over the years, the truth is that tourists were attracted by this means of transport , which paid much more than residents and allowed some Cambodians to generate income. But the Government said goodbye to this contraption at the end of 2017 to promote the new passenger train service and avoid accidents.
In 2009, the Asian Development Bank provided more than 11 million euros to rebuild a segment of the railway 42 km from Cambodia , leaving the government responsible for rebuilding the remaining 6 km.
The alternative on rails, until now, was the so-called 'norry'
In theory, the reconstruction was expected to be ready by mid-2016, but the date had to be postponed several times for various reasons, including legal obstacles and some disputes over the right to land of people living near the railway tracks.
In Cambodia, the lines of Phnom Penh to Poipet, Sihanoukville and Pursat province . When the train that will cross to Thailand begins to operate, according to the authorities, they will open a new station in Poipet , because the current one is too small to accommodate many passengers and the volume is expected to be high.
Surely, many more stations will open soon. In fact, there are plans to make this project much more ambitious and that part of Southeast Asia can be linked with southern China by train . Or at least that's what he said Hun Sen during the inauguration ceremony of the new line.
Neglected condition of the roads