Unproposed railways of Southeast Asia #1: Koh Samui

Greetings from Ko Lipe, Thailand. This island paradise is not the sort of place I hope gets featured on Future Southeast Asia, but I will be doing some transport articles for Nomadic Notes. Here are a few photos of the beach.

This week I put together a resource page about a proposed railway from Ha Long to Mong Cai on the China border. I only discovered this when I saw a news article from China mentioning a China-Vietnam high-speed railway. It appears that China has gone ahead and built this railway expecting that Vietnam would do the same on the other side of the border.

I’ve also made my own proposal for a new railway in Thailand. This will be the first in the series of unproposed railways that I think should be considered.

Latest posts at Future Southeast Asia

Ha Long – Mong Cai Railway

The Ha Long – Mong Cai Railway is a proposed railway connecting Ha Long City in Quang Ninh Province to Mong Cai on the Vietnam-China border. There is also a proposed Mong Cai-Van Don high-speed railway, which is a shorter route connecting the Van Don economic zone to the border.

Dispatches from Southeast Asia

• The case for a train to Koh Samui

A combined road/rail bridge could put an end to Samui Airport's stranglehold on the island.

News

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• Malaysia’s China Railway Group expresses interest in Cambodia’s high-speed rail project

• Siem Reap airport to close after new one opens

• Key road job with longest bridge ‘in 2024’

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• Indonesia unveils incentives for investors in new capital city

• The basic problem with 190 years of land rights in Nusantara

• Canggu’s traffic gridlock continues to frustrate tourists

And locals as well, I guess.

🇱🇦 Laos

• Govt plans to build around five overpasses in Vientiane Capital

• Laos enters era of online train ticket sales with new app

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• Malaysia keen on resuming high-speed rail project with Singapore

• Nik Nazmi: Penang South Islands project will only be approved if it meets environmental impact assessment’s stringent requirements 

• Sarawak’s ART vehicle completed, undergoing proof-of-concept in Zhuzhou

• Sarawak deputy premier says satisfied with construction of nation's longest bridge spanning over a river

• ECRL's Kuantan tunnel ready next month, overall project progress at 40 per cent

• RM64mil Kota Bharu Sentral bus terminal to be ready by 2026

“…the KB Sentral terminal would be adjacent to the proposed East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project, expected to be ready by 2027.”

• Federal govt has no plans to build Sabah-Sarawak-Brunei-Nusantara railway yet

• KLIA in need of major facelift

🇲🇲 Myanmar

• Talks underway to resume work on Trans-Myanmar Railway linking China to Bay of Bengal

🇵🇭 Philippines

• Philippines greenlights more than 100 infrastructure projects using US$163 billion of its own money

• DPWH: Construction of Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge to start in late 2023

• Colorful, iconic jeepneys may soon be off the road in the Philippines

“The passenger vehicles have been ubiquitous for decades. The way the government wants to replace them with pricey new minibuses is rankling operators.”

• DPWH: Construction of P7.3-B Panguil Bay Bridge in Northern Mindanao now at 63%

• Gov’t bids out Tacloban airport project

• Megaworld township to house commuter railway station

🇸🇬 Singapore

• Singapore puts up Padang and surrounding buildings for potential Unesco World Heritage Site nomination, following Botanic Gardens status

• From Tampines to Toa Payoh: 5 neighbourhoods to pilot 'Friendly Streets' with wider paths and 'calmer traffic'

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Thailand and Japan to start first phase of Bangkok - Chiang Mai rail project

This is good news, but again there is a big mixed-gauge problem on the horizon. There is a new railway being built to Chiang Rai, which branches off this line. It’s going to be a metre gauge railway, so it is incompatible with this future standard gauge railway.

• Thailand’s first urban rail network outside of Bangkok to be built from 2024

• Bidding open for commercial space at Bang Sue Grand, Red Line stations

• Orange Line extensions 'on hold' due to legal issues

• Ex-Bangkok governor and others faulted over choice of BTS to operate sky train extensions

• Rayong to Bangkok bullet train project still on hold

• Four new airlines to join Thailand’s crowded skies

• Eight-lane bridge over Chao Phraya River in Bangkok to open next year

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• In unprecedented slump, no beachfront properties sold for 2 months

A better headline might have been: “In a completely predictable outcome, thousands of ugly cookie-cutter villas and shophouses that no one wanted have not been sold.”

• Hanoi seeks further delay in operation of second metro line’s elevated section

• Construction of metro line No.2 expected to start in 2025

• Ho Chi Minh City replaces roundabouts with overpasses, traffic lights

• Hanoi to build 351 million USD bridge over Red River

• Hanoi to plant 400,000 more trees

• Apartment building in downtown Hue on brink of collapse