The railway line connecting Cambodia and Thailand will be finished as planned at the end of the year, although there are still about six kilometers under construction, officials said yesterday.
On the Cambodian side, we have only about six kilometers still under construction, said newly-appointed Minister of Public Works and Transportation Sun Chanthol yesterday.
Mr. Chanthol said the connection between the two train tracks in northern Banteay Meanchey province is very important.
The Thai side has confirmed that they have six kilometers of track to the border that they are constructing and they said they would finish it by August, Mr. Chanthol said.
He added that the public works ministry will finish Cambodias six kilometers of track so the connecting link with Thailand will be done by December. He said the rail connection would be a big boost to trade.
Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Thai counterpart Prayuth Chan-o-Cha agreed to restore rail links by 2016 during the Cambodia-Thailand Joint Cabinet Retreat in Bangkok last December. The aim is to increase trade and transportation links as the two leaders vowed the triple bilateral trade volume to $15 billion by 2020.
However, although connecting the track between the two countries is going to plan so far, the poor state of the track on the Cambodian side may prove to be an obstacle.
Mr. Chanthol said the Phnom Penh to Banteay Meanchy line is in a poor state.
The ministry is using the government budget to restore and renovate some parts of the line, which was severely damaged during the civil war, he said.
Right now, we still have $17 million of the governments budget for work to restore the northern railway [Phnom Penh to Poipet], he said. The ministry will start restoring some parts of the track from Phnom Penh to Bat Ding to Svey Sisophorn and we aim to connect with the Thai track by the end of 2016.
During a JICA-organized seminar on the Logistics Situation and Challenges in Cambodia in Phnom Penh yesterday, Mr. Chanthol said upgrading infrastructure in the country is very important, especially for the private sector.
He said he hoped that connecting the railway line between Cambodia and Thailand will benefit Cambodia and help to ship agriculture from the northern part of the country to Thailands Laem Chabang deep sea port.
May Kalyan, a senior advisor to the governments Supreme National Economic Council, welcomed the move and said it will encourage more people to invest in the country.
Sometimes, when there is a working railway line, investors build factories alongside the tracks, he said. When the railway track is in service, investors will build factories next to the tracks because it is easy to transport goods and products.
Mr. Kalyan said he was optimistic the rail connection will attract investors from Thailand to Cambodia because it will be easier to transport their products economically.
When the Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville railway was put into service, the new connection helped boost efficiency in shipping agricultural products with low costs for the transport fees, Mr. Kalyan said.
To restore the railways in the country, the government has used a $141 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as well as the governments own budget to renovate the two lines from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville and from Phnom Penh to Poipet.
Poipet is on the border next to Thailands Sa Kaeo province.
Unfortunately, the $141 million was spent renovating only one line, from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville, and another 42 kilometers to link Poipet to Thailand. The link from Phnom Penh to Bantey Meanchey is still waiting on another loan or grant before it can be completed.
In an interview with Khmer Times earlier this week, Ly Borin, the director of the Transportation Ministrys Railway Department, said that once the rail is able to connect from Poipet in Cambodia to Sa Kaeo in Thailand, Cambodia can connect to Singapore via Thailand and Malaysia and it will be called the Asean railway.
Cambodia is Thailands 22nd largest trading partner and eighth largest in Asean. Bilateral trade was worth $5.1 billion in 2014, up 11 percent from the $4.6 billion in 2013, according to the Thai Embassy to Phnom Penh.
Royal Railways is conducting a feasibility study on a rail line that would whisk passengers from the center of Phnom Penh to the airport in less than 15 minutes, the companys CEO said on Wednesday.
Though the plan is still in the early stages of discussion, Royal Railways CEO John Guiry said he hoped to use an existing rail line for most of the route and, under the most optimistic scenario, have trains running in 18 months.
Youd depart and youd almost be sitting in the Burger King at the airport in 10 to 15 minutes, Mr. Guiry said.
Though Mr. Guiry stressed that the plan was only just a discussion at this point, he predicted a relatively fast launch of the service. Its not a 10-year process, he said. I want to have a go of it.
Cambodia is undergoing a rail revival of sorts. Last month, Royal Railways restarted a route from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville that had been dormant for 14 years.
The proposed airport train would track along the same route as that of a planned elevated expressway that Prime Minister Hun Sen abruptly canceled last month, two months after senior government officials warned that it would negatively impact at least a thousand families.
Mr. Guiry said no evictions would be necessary to complete the rail line. I wouldnt even do it if there was a risk of eviction, he said.
The line would follow tracks already in use except for a final stretch along currently vacant land, he added.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) called for a similar line in its 2035 master plan for urban transport in Phnom Penh, alongside a $586 million driverless train that would travel along a separate, southern route to the airport.
JICA project adviser Aya Miura said on Wednesday the projects were complementary and that the southern line, which would be financed by Japanese loans if built, had not yet undergone a feasibility study.
Private taxi driver Leang La said it currently takes him anywhere from 45 to 70 minutes to transport customers the roughly 11 km from central Phnom Penh to the airport.
Sometimes they are very late, Mr. La said. Nowadays is not very good for traffic.
Cambodia's recently revived passenger rail service, which operates on weekends and holidays, is not just transporting passengers between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, it is allowing them to take their cars along with them, John Guiry, CEO of Royal Railways, said yesterday.
He said up to 20 vehicles will join their passengers on tomorrows train to the coast the second such trip transporting vehicles since Prime Minister Hun Sen took the train two weeks ago. One-way passenger tickets cost $6, while the fare on an accompanying car is $10, or $4 for a motorbike. Spaces for vehicles are limited.
Trains are again running to and from the Cambodian capital and popular destinations in the south including jumping-off points for unspoilt islands
Saturday morning and Phnom Penhs French-built station is buzzing as excited groups board the inaugural passenger train from Cambodias capital to the coastal town of Sihanoukville. After 14 years, regular rail services between the two cities restarted in May offering a safer option than road for travellers aiming for some beach time.
This should be much more fun than the bus, says 30-year-old Ouk Sivonshe. No crazy driving!
Twenty minutes after weve left the city, the views from the large windows are of bucolic scenes synonymous with the lower Mekong region water buffalo ploughing fields, palm trees and, in rainy season at least, green rice fields as far as one can see.
The service, which currently runs from Friday to Sunday plus extra dates for national holidays uses two refurbished trains, holding around 200 passengers each. The 266km journey to and from the coast takes 6½ hours, but this will be cut by two hours later this year matching the bus journey time, and at almost half the price of some bus tickets. Passengers motorbikes, and even cars, can be transported on the train at an additional cost.
For now, the train stops at two stations between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville: Takeo, two hours south of the capital, and home to some little-visited Angkor temple ruins; and Kampot, another two hours on.
On the edge of Bokor national park, Kampot is a peaceful coastal town, famous for its pepper and salt farms. It is undergoing something of a revival, with a handful of new guesthouses and restaurants forcing older places to up their game. Kool Kampot is a new hostel with a riverside location (its address is simply: Riverside), and Portuguese seafood restaurant Tertúlia (Tuek Chhu Road) is already proving popular. Tiny Cafe Espresso, known for its coffees and brunches, has just started brewing its own cider and ginger beer worth the pilgrimage.
Nearby Kep, once the playground of Cambodias elite, has largely recovered from the ravages of the Khmer Rouge era, and some of the renovated villas are opening as guesthouses. Walks in Kep national park, home to macaque monkeys, build up an appetite for dinner at Keps famous crab market.
Those following the line to the end at Sihanoukville, named after the former King Sihanouk, can stay to enjoy the lively port city, or jump on a boat to the islands of Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem the latter light on modern amenities and with miles of near-empty golden sand.
With train travel in neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam featuring on many visitors itineraries, Cambodias gentle resumption of passenger services is bound to be popular. The restoration of a second line, linking Phnom Penh with the northern border city of Poipet from where twice-daily trains run to Bangkok is due to finish in February 2017, and prime minister Hun Sen is proposing a new line to Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat. The newfound enthusiasm for railways in the kingdom looks set to continue.
A one-way ticket from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville costs $7; Phnom Penh to Kampot $6. Buy tickets at Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville stations, or via Royal Railway at +855 078 888 582
Plans to complete the railway line connecting Phnom Penh to Poipet Citythereby linking Cambodias main port in Sihanoukville to Thailandmay not be completed within current time and budget constraints, a Transport Ministry official said on Tuesday.
Ly Borin, director of the ministrys railway department, said the government would continue to work toward the goal of finishing the line by late 2016an aim reiterated during a meeting between the Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers this weekbut that he was unsure whether the deadline would be met.
We will try to build the railway to connect Cambodia and Thailand by late 2016, but I am not sure we can do it, he said, explaining that the only funds available this year were $20 million from the Finance Ministry.
Plans to overhaul the rail line were put on hold after Cambodia failed to secure funding from foreign donors, and the government decided last year to foot the bill for repairs that will allow trains to travel at about 15 kph, well under the 50 kph initially envisioned.
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