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RAILWAY RESURGENCE POST-COVID CONTINUES
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There are now many exciting ways to travel around Cambodia. Car and motorcycle ownership has grown exponentially, there are many coach and minibus services operating, and even domestic flights are available. One major form of transport has perhaps been overlooked – the train.
The Kingdom’s railways are safe and inexpensive, and it has accelerated since services resumed in April before Khmer New Year.
Sak Vanny, manager of passenger operations for Royal Railway Cambodia, said train services were suspended from March 2021 until March this year due to pandemic.
She said that since reopening, the number of passengers had steadily increased by around 30-40 per cent. Between 19 and 20 carriages, able to accommodate 1,100 to 1,200 passengers.
She confirmed that breakdowns could occur, but similar to other vehicles, and they were very rare. If a train have mechanical failure, the engineers would fix it as quick as possible, while the company communicated the cause of delay towards the customers.
“If one is available, we will switch the locomotive with another and continue the journey. If neither repairs nor a replacement locomotive are feasible options, we will hire buses so the passengers make it to their destinations,” she added.
The Cambodian rail network consists of two lines. Northern railway, which runs 386km from Phnom Penh to Poipet town and Thai border. The southern railway, from the capital to Sihanoukville, which has a length of 264km.
In April inauguration ceremony of 38 roads and infrastructure projects in Siem Reap, Prime Minister Hun Sen urged the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to consider finding a partner to develop modern high-speed rail. He considered the current rail network too slow to respond the Kingdom’s future socio-economic development.
Public works ministry spokesman Vasim Sorya said that no new updates were available regarding the modernization of the rail network. However, Senior Minister Sun Chanthol, the Minister of Public Works and Transport has been making enquiries with private companies and studying the possibility of upgrading the existing network, or building a new one.
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