Thailand-Laos rail service begins in late April

admin · Thailand-Laos rail service begins in late April

Thailand-Laos rail service begins in late April
www.chinaview.cn 2008-03-01 21:38:30 Print

BANGKOK, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Rail service between Thailand and neighboring Laos will start late this April, according to the Thai Ministry of Transport on Saturday.

Chaisawat Kittipornpaiboon, Thailand's permanent secretary for Transport, was quoted by the Thai News Agency as saying that the rail lines of the two countries were connected on the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge in the Thai border province of Nong Khai on Feb.20.

The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) plans to begin its rail services to Laos around late April, said Chaisawat.

Construction of the rail line from the middle of the bridge to Ban Tanalaeng in Laos has taken 18 months and is due to be completed next month as the SRT has also installed a traffic control system and telecommunication facilities.

Initially, two passenger train services from Bangkok-Nong Khai-Ban Thanaleng will be operated while a special ticket between NongKhai and Ban Thanaleng will be issued for tourists.
Editor: Bi Mingxin

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2008-04-04 02:14:53 -

THANALAENG, Laos (AP) - Landlocked, impoverished Laos will soon take a significant step some countries first made two centuries ago it will chug into the railway age with a humble, 2.17-mile (3.5-kilometre) line, but one linking it to a network projected to span all of Asia.Workers are putting the finishing touches to a station, embankments and a 1-meter gauge track from the Thailand-Laos Friendship Bridge across the mighty Mekong River toward the country's capital of Vientiane. The line is expected to begin service in late April.
Enthusiastic officials view bringing rail to the mountainous, sparsely populated country as a spur to trade and tourism, helping pull it up from the ranks of the world's poorest nations. Although the initial track is short, it will connect the country to the seaports it doesn't have in neighbouring Thailand and then elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Rail shipping would cost only one-fourth of truck transport and slash prices of imported goods, said Sonesack N. Nhansana, deputy director general of the Lao Railway Authority. Further savings, he says, will come when Laos erects a facility to accept containers directly from seaports in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Three kilometres doesn't sound like much, but as the Chinese say, 'A long march starts with a single step.' It's crucial for facilitating trade,» says Pierre Chatrier, a United Nations expert on Asian railways.

When the sweat-drenched labourers are done with the initial section, there are plans for expansion. The most ambitious is a railway straight down the country's spine to be part of the much-heralded link between Singapore and Kunming in southern China's Yunnan province. Someday, rail buffs will be able to hop aboard a train in the island republic and ride all the way to London _ a 10,500-mile (16,900-kilometre) journey, the world's longest.

As the first step toward expansion, the French government is financing a feasibility study to add 5.6 miles (9 kilometres) of track to bring the line to the gates of Vientiane. Longer range, a tie-up between the coast of central Vietnam and Laos is planned, as more spur lines are built and gaps filled in the Trans-Asian Railway, a U.N.-backed network connecting Southeast to North Asia and the entire continent to Europe.

Laos is one of the world's last communist-ruled countries. Laos opened up it's once hermit economy in 1986, a decade after Pathetic Lao guerrillas toppled the U.S.-backed government just as the Vietnam War ended. Today, its actively seeking foreign investment.
Sonesack said many Chinese companies have expressed interest in the north-south project but that the Beijing government's financial backing was essential. Laos can't afford the estimated US$1.7 billion (¤1.1 billion) price tag.
China may well foot the bill because Laos stands at the centre of its economic push southwards. Road and rail distances from Yunnan, a relatively poor region that Beijing seeks to develop, are far shorter through Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam than existing routes to China's eastern seaports.Laos is one of the last nations in the world without rail service. Among those without are Greenland, Iceland, Cyprus, and several African, Caribbean and Persian Gulf nations. In Asia, only the kingdom of Bhutan has no railroads.

«Many people said, 'You're a dreamer. It's impossible to construct a railway in Laos,» said Sonesack, who studied engineering in the former Soviet Union. «I thought I would not see it in my own lifetime, maybe in my son's. Now it is reality.
He said future railway workers were being sent for training in Thailand, which covered the US$6.2 million (¤4 million) cost of the short line through loans and grants. Thai rolling stock will be used, but Sonesack said a Japanese manufacturer is expected to donate at least one locomotive and two rail cars.

Orient Express Hotels, a global travel company, is eager to carry tourists into Laos on its deluxe Eastern & Oriental Express. «As soon as the railway line is open and the Lao station is ready to accept passengers, we will be ready,» said General Manager Leesa Lovelace.
Another tourism proposal is the possible restoration of what was actually Laos' first flirtation with railways _ a 4-mile (6.4-kilometre) track built by French colonials.
The narrow gauge line, abandoned during World War II, was laid across two islands in southern Laos to bypass massive waterfalls that hindered cargo shipment up the Mekong from Vietnam. A Korean company has surveyed the area but the project has so far gone no further.

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VIENTIANE : Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej yesterday pledged 900 million baht of additional financial assistance to Laos for the construction of a nine-kilometre railway track from Thanaleng, on the Thai border, to the Lao capital here.

''I will return to Thailand to discuss the matter with the government's legal officials. I think there is a high possibility of it and this is not too difficult for the Thai government to help with,'' the prime minister said.

Mr Samak's statement came while he was visiting the Thanaleng railway station to monitor the progress of the line's construction before attending the two-day Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) summit of six government leaders.

The talks bring together the prime ministers of Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos and Vietnam.

Thanaleng town is opposite Nong Khai and is the site of the first Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge.

The prime minister said the rail link extension, once completed, will help facilitate the transport of Thai and Lao people and goods between the two countries.

Lao Ambassador to Thailand Ouan Phommachack welcomed Mr Samak's idea.

''We will wait and see whether the Thai government will really be able to push for the matter. We will discuss it later to see what types of financial aid is available,'' he said.

The planned rail link extension project, including the construction costs, is now being studied by the French Development Agency, which is expected to finish the assessment shortly.

The Thai government gave Laos a soft loan and a grant of 197 million baht to construct the 3.5 km railway from the middle of the bridge to Thanaleng.

The Thanaleng railway station connects with Nong Khai station. It is expected to open in May after 18 months of construction, which is set to end on April 24.

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra initiated the project to give financial aid to Thailand's neighbouring countries to held them develop their infrastructure.

Yesterday Deputy Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat signed a joint traffic agreement with Lao Public Works and Transport Minister Sommath Pholsena to pave the way for the operation of a train service to carry passengers and goods after the rail link is opened.

Today, Mr Samak will try to persuade other Mekong leaders to back his plan to build a loop road to link their countries.

He said the Thailand-initiated project could be completed in three years if it receives backing from all the countries in the Mekong subregion.

He said Thailand had already contacted 10 construction companies from Japan, Germany and the US.

''The road link project will help connect all the countries in the Mekong region,'' he said.

The proposed road would likely start in Tak province and lead to Rangoon, Mandalay and Kengtung in Burma, Jinghong in China and then to Vietnam and Siem Reap in Cambodia, he said.

The GMS, initiated by the Asian Development Bank in 1992 to increase economic cooperation and eradicate poverty in the six countries that share the Mekong, is focussed on the development of transport links and infrastructure.