Railway Tân Ằp – Thakhet

Tân Ằp – Thakhet
Route length:	187 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Legend Hanoi – Ho Chi Minh City railway line from Hanoi 0 Tân Ằp Hanoi – Ho Chi Minh City railway line to Saigon Xóm Long 7th Thánh Lạng 280 m Ráu Cái 14th Xóm Gi 19th Xóm Cúc Vietnam-side company head Xóm Cúc cable car Xóm Giung Cha Mac cable car Xóm Mon cable car 38 Xóm Y Lanh 44.5 Bai Dinh Unnamed station cable car Bai Dinh cable car Phou Tov Vou cable car 46.2 Tunnel (235 m) 48.1 Tunnel (660 m) 49.3 Tunnel (480 m) Vietnam 57 Mụ Giạ pass (387 m) Laos 57.6 Tunnel (55 m) Mụ Giạ cable car Ban Naphao cable car 71.3 Ban Thôngkham 84.5 Ban Sang 92 Ban Bung 97 Nam In 100 Ban Bo 111 Ban Hai 120 Ban Ilan 125 Nam Gnôm 130 Ban Dang 140 Mahaxai 149.5 Ban Natoung 162 Ban Khing 170.5 Nam Thok laos-sided building tip 172 Nam Dôn 176.2 Ban Nam Dôn 178 Nam Dôn 180 Ban dong 186.6 Thakhek Mekong , Laos / Thailand border Nakhon Phanom

The Tân Ằp – Thakhet railway was a project of the French colonial power to create an east – west railway connection from Annam (today: Vietnam ) to Laos in French Indochina . The project was never completed.

Geographical location

The line branched off in Tân Ằp from the Indochinese main line Hanoi – Saigon in a southerly direction, then turned west after crossing the Lao border, crossing Laos at its narrowest point and on the Mekong , which forms the border here, opposite the Thai city Nakhon Phanom to end in Thakhet . To this day, Nakhon Phanom has no rail connection to the network of the Thai State Railways . The terrain to be traversed was difficult for a railway line . In the area of ​​the border between Annam and Laos a mountain range had to be overcome, the peaks of which are between 1500 m and 1900 m high. The 418 m high Mụ Giạ pass was chosen as the point of crossing over the mountains .

history

prehistory

Since the 1880s there were considerations to connect Laos from Vietnam or Cambodia to the railway network in Indochina. However, the colonial power did not begin to build such a route until the beginning of 1930, from both ends, the Vietnamese Tân Ằp and the Laotian Thakhek. The route should be 186 km long. A number of reasons were decisive for the choice of this route: It was one of the shortest possible connections between the Hanoi – Saigon railway line and the border with Thailand. Thakhek as a target point was interesting because large deposits of tin had been discovered there. In general, with the construction of the railway, the colonial power wanted to prevent Laos from further orienting itself in its trade to Thailand and directing trade to the ports of French Indochina on the east coast of Indochina . The French colonial administration also expected that Thailand would extend its north-eastern line to Nakhon Phanom and that a bridge over the Mekong could connect the two networks.

construction

From 1922 the plans became more concrete and construction began in 1929/30. In December 1933, the easternmost section from Tân Ằp to Xóm Cúc was opened. However, the project got stuck in view of the technical difficulties caused by the terrain and the financial difficulties caused by the global economic crisis . In particular, little progress has been made on the Vietnamese side with the tunnels required for the ascent into the mountains. Between 1924 and 1931 the route was therefore rescheduled several times in this section. In Laos, the 16 km route was completed without a track being laid when construction work on the railway stopped in 1937.

Due to the slow construction progress through the mountains, the French colonial administration had the 42 km long cable car Xóm Cúc – Ban Naphao built from 1930 , roughly parallel to the planned railway line , which was used exclusively for goods transport.

When Japan occupied Indochina in World War II in 1941, the occupying powers were interested in completing the route for their own purposes. But it was not until the beginning of 1945 that the decision was made to implement this. As early as June, however, all efforts were given up due to the massive deterioration in the military situation in Japan.

The End

The traversed section from Tân Ằp to Xóm Cúc is already listed as closed in the mid-1950s.

Around 2009 there were considerations to restore and complete the route between Vietnam and Laos, but this has not materialized since then.

literature

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information from Whyte: The Railway Atlas , p. 155f; Card 25.
2. ↑ Whyte, p. 150.
3. ↑ Whyte, p. 151.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Whyte, p. 155.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Whyte, p. 152.