Nong Khai – Thanaleng railway line

Nong Khai – Thanaleng
Train in Thanaleng station
Route length:	5.35 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Legend Nakhon Ratchasima – Nong Khai railway line 621.10 Nong Khai until 2000: Nong Khai Mai 621.91 623.58 Talat Nong Khai until 2000: Nong Khai 623.76 Friendship Bridge , Mekong 1170 m 626.58 Thanaleng 627.26 End of the route Vientiane

Thanaleng train station

Road and rails on the Friendship Bridge

The Nong Khai – Thanaleng railway is the only international railway connection between Thailand and Laos and at the same time the only active railway connection in Laos.

history

As early as 1994, tracks were laid from Nong Khai to the border line on the first Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge . Only on March 20, 2004 was an agreement signed between Thailand and Laos for the construction of the railway line over the Friendship Bridge. The Thai government decided to finance the route through a combination of grant and loan. The cost was estimated at $ 6.2 million , 70% of which was funded by Thai loans. Construction work began in June 2006, even if the official “first groundbreaking” did not take place until January 2007. The first test train ran on July 4th, 2008. The official opening took place on March 5th, 2009 by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn .

The previous terminus of the Nakhon Ratchasima – Nong Khai railway , which was too far east to connect the line to Laos, was renamed from Nong Khai to Talat Nong Khai in 2000 , but then closed in 2008 - not in use for a long time. The nearest train station on the route to Bangkok, which is also the branch station for the route to Laos, was renamed from Nong Khai Mai to Nong Khai and now functioned as the “main station” for Nong Khai.

route

The line was built according to the parameters of the Thai state railway , i.e. meter gauge . It extends the Nakhon Ratchasima – Nong Khai railway line and comes from its northernmost station , Nong Khai , over the Friendship Bridge. On the bridge, the tracks are laid in the middle between the two lanes. The state border Thailand / Laos is formed by the Mekong and crossed on the bridge. Behind the bridge is the only level crossing in all of Laos. The route then ends in the currently single station of Laos, the terminus of Thanaleng in Vientiane prefecture , where the Lao immigration control takes place.

traffic

Regular passenger traffic between Nong Khai and Laos began at the end of March 2009 and is operated by the Thai State Railways . There is no own Laotian railway company . Two pairs of trains run daily between Nong Khai and Thanaleng. The Eastern and Oriental Express also occasionally runs this route.

Further construction

On February 22, 2006, France and Thailand, together with Laos, decided to finance the extension of the line via Thanaleng station to the Laotian capital. Thailand financed the first section to Thanaleng, while France wanted to cover the costs of the further construction from Thanaleng to Vientiane. The estimated cost of the entire project was $ 13 million. However, before further construction could take place, the project was temporarily abandoned at the end of 2010 in favor of a future high-speed connection between Kunming and Singapore that would run roughly parallel . After this plan is not to be implemented, the Thai government agreed in July 2012 to finance the 7.8 kilometer extension to Vientiane, which should be completed by 2014. However, the extension has not yet been implemented.

literature

• Whyte, Brendan R .: The Railway Atlas of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia . Bangkok 2010. ISBN 978-974-480-157-9

Web links

• Official website of the Eastern and Oriental Express

Individual evidence

1. ^ Railway Gazette
2. ↑ Whyte, p. 156.
3. ^ Railway Gazette
4. ↑ HRH Princess Sirindhorn presides at inauguration of historic cross-Mekong rail service " ( Memento of the original dated November 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and remove then this note. The Nation, March 5, 2009 
5. ↑ Report by the Bangkok Post
6. ↑ Report in www.railway-technology.com
7. ↑ Whyte, pp. 62, 156.
8. ↑ rst: Laos / Thailand: New border crossing Thanaleng-Nong Khai . In: IBSE-Telegram 235 (June 2010), p. 6.
9. ↑ Stefan Loose: News overview from the Vientiane Times from 1.-31. May 2009
10. ↑ rst: Laos / Thailand: New border crossing Thanaleng-Nong Khai . In: IBSE-Telegram 235 (June 2010), p. 6.
11. ↑ rst: Laos / Thailand: New border crossing Thanaleng-Nong Khai . In: IBSE-Telegram 235 (June 2010), p. 6.
12. ↑ France okays Thai-Laos railway link " The Nation, February 23, 2006 ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to instructions and then remove this notice. 
13. ↑ Press release on the construction stop ( Memento of the original from February 5, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
14. ↑ Thailand to fund Laos rail link extension. railway-technology.com, July 24, 2012, accessed July 29, 2012 .