Bangkok To Beijing Train, Clickity-Clack, Clickity-Clack

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A Bangkok to Beijing train journey became one clickity-clack link closer with the completion by Thailand and Laos of a Mekong River railway bridge and tracks last month, enabling cross-border rail transport with Laos for the first time and only several dozen miles remaining as the last trackless gap to reach China.

With the Thai-Lao railway's new opening, a 12-hour-long train trip now runs from Bangkok's main Krung Thep Aphiwat Station to Khamsavath Station in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

Vientiane's small Khamsavath Station, about six miles outside of the capital, is the final stop for the new Thai-Lao railway's carriages.

To reach China, passengers and cargo arriving by train from Bangkok still need to cross Vientiane's streets via taxis, vans, and other vehicles to traverse the several dozen miles from Khamsavath Station to Vientiane Railway Station, until that last rail link is constructed.

Some officials indicated those final tracks could be laid by 2028.

The much larger Vientiane Railway Station, about 10 miles northeast of the Lao capital, is a glistening, cavernous, peak-roofed Chinese-built facility offering high-speed Chinese trains linking Vientiane and southern China.

Meanwhile, the new Bangkok-Vientiane route is expected to increase trade between the two Southeast Asia nations and spur international tourism into Laos which is increasingly opening its one-party Communist country to foreign visitors.

The cheapest one-way tickets from Bangkok to Vientiane are 152 third-class seats, each available for $7.80 and cooled by ceiling-mounted electric fans.

Sixty-four airconditioned second-class seats are $16 each.

Thirty second-class seats can be converted into an airconditioned upper bed bunk for $22 each, while a lower bed costs about $25.30.

Currently, a handful of vehicular bridges link the two countries up and down their shared Mekong River border including at the Mekong town of Nong Khai parallel to the Thai-Lao train.

Previously, Thai trains from Bangkok terminated at Nong Khai because only a highway on a Friendship Bridge crossed the Mekong linking Nong Khai and Vientiane.

Thailand and Laos however successfully extended the route by about five miles from Nong Khai into Laos, including a new railway bridge parallel to the Friendship Bridge.

The government-run State Railway of Thailand (SRT) said it was advising Lao National Railway State Enterprise officials about scheduling and station management, ticket sales, train driving, and other operations.

When the Bangkok-Vientiane train crosses the Mekong, Lao train drivers take command starting at Nong Khai Station because Thai drivers could face international liability for operating on Lao territory.

Immigration and customs facilities for Thailand and Laos require a passport or border pass be stamped in Nong Khai and Vientiane.

To travel across Laos into China, a multi-billion dollar Chinese-built train, operating since 2021, passes from Vientiane Station through the northern stations of Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang, Muang Xay, and Luang Namtha before crossing into China's Boten Station in southern Yunnan province near Xishuangbanna.

Those Chinese trains are operated by the Laos–China Railway Co., as part of Beijing's financial and strategic Belt and Road Initiative.

From Boten, onward trains link to all Chinese rail destinations including Kunming, Beijing, Shanghai, and Tibet.

The sleek Vientiane-Boten trains cut across northern Laos through 75 tunnels dodging rugged karst hills, small waterfalls, and unexploded bombs unrecovered from the U.S. war in Laos during the 1960s and 1970s.

"This service is beneficial especially for agricultural produce as the freshness of the goods is retained when they reach consumers in China," Vientiane Logistics Park Co. vice president Tee Chee Seng said in 2022.

"Fresh products fetch good prices. Those who benefit from quick transport are consumers and farmers," Mr. Tee said.

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Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based American foreign correspondent reporting from Asia since 1978, and winner of Columbia University's Foreign Correspondents' Award. Excerpts from his two new nonfiction books, "Rituals. Killers. Wars. & Sex. -- Tibet, India, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka & New York" and "Apocalyptic Tribes, Smugglers & Freaks" are available at
https://asia-correspondent.tumblr.com

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