News: 26 October 2022

You may have noticed that I have been writing a lot about the urban rail transit system of Bangkok. While researching the transfer and ticketing mess of the system it occurred to me that there isn’t an official map of the Bangkok rail network (let alone a unified name).

This week’s article started off as a quest to find every map of the Bangkok transit system and put them all in one place. I ended up making a full resource page for all lines - current and proposed. This page will be continually updated with news about new lines, and I will add new maps that are made.

Latest posts at Future Southeast Asia

• Bangkok Mass Rapid Transit System Guide – Current, under construction, and proposed lines, and maps

Dispatches from Southeast Asia: Danang, Vietnam

• Vietnam aviation report (mini report)

I was in Danang last week, which got me thinking about the aviation recovery in Vietnam. It includes new flight routes to places I would never have guessed, and the return of one of the fastest-growing flight routes in the region.

News

• New era of China’s Belt and Road Initiative will see less risk and more focus

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• New Siem Reap airport 44% done, still set to open in Oct 2023

• Cambodia-Korea Friendship Bridge to be built next year

• Orkide director gets 67 hectares on Boeng Tamok

“A business associate of the prime minister’s daughter has received 67 hectares from the state on the rapidly filling Boeng Tamok lake in Phnom Penh.”

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• Bali environmental leaders say rapid development is to blame for recent natural disasters

🇱🇦 Laos

• Thai, Lao PMs to lay foundation stone for new Mekong bridge

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• Bayan Lepas LRT construction expected to start in Q4 2023

[Updated: Bayan Lepas LRT]

• The RM40 bln Widad Langkasuka project is designed to become a new tourist attraction in Langkawi

“On Oct 23, 2022, a groundbreaking ceremony was held by Widad Business Group (WBG) Sdn Bhd through its wholly-owned subsidiary Langkasuka Land Sdn Bhd (LLSB) to kick off construction on Langkasuka Village, phase 1 of the project.”

[Updated: Langkasuka]

• MRL: ECRL project completes 12 tunnel breakthroughs to date

[Updated: East Coast Rail Link]

• Draft local plan for Penang island up for public opinions

[Updated: Penang South Islands]

🇲🇲 Myanmar

• China carves path to Indian Ocean with Myanmar rail network

[Updated: Muse-Mandalay-Kyaukphyu Railway]

🇵🇭 Philippines

• Airport rehab, seaports needed to boost logistics

• Gov’t eyes $1-b ADB loan to fund MRT Line 4 project

• Over P1 billion infrastructure projects proposed for Cebu City in 2023

🇸🇬 Singapore

• From tunnelling 1.8m under a live MRT line to diverting a canal: LTA sets out TEL3 engineering challenges

• An IT professional quit his job and spent 2 years building a luxury hotel out of 4 shipping containers in downtown Singapore — take a look at how he did it

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Pink and Yellow lines monorail services to open for free public trial in December

• Bridge project 'threatens rare dolphins'

”Plan in works to save Songkhla Lake's last pod.”

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• Hanoi proposes $644 mln additional capital for No. 2 metro project

• Two metro line projects in HCMC proposed rescheduling completion period