Phitsanulok trip report

Phitsanulok is a city in Central Thailand (or Lower Northern Thailand, depending on how you define regions). It has the distinction of being a crossroads city, with major North-South and East-West highways passing through there. It almost became a major railway hub as well, which I will cover in this article.

My interest in Phitsanulok was piqued by a proposed people mover. The proposal is for an Auto Tram System, which is basically a tram with rubber wheels (or is it a bus that looks like a tram?) There are several cities in Thailand that are proposing urban transit systems, but Bangkok is still the only city with a transit system of some kind.

I am chronicling every proposed transit system in Southeast Asia, and I have made a fact sheet for the Phitsanulok Auto Tram System.

The official website calls it the Phitsanulok Mass Transit Project. Labelling anything as Mass in a city of 62,000 people seems like a bit of a stretch, so I had to go to Phitsanulok for myself to get a feel for the city and see if it needs a mass transit system.

I have been to Phitsanulok before, but I was in travel mode and on the way to see the nearby historic ruins of Sukhothai. This was my first visit to see the city through the lens of urbanism.

Phitsanulok is roughly midway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai on the Northern Line, and it takes around 4 hours to travel the 383 km. This is on flat terrain and it’s the fastest section of the Northern Line. I got the train to Phitsanulok, and after my visit, I continued by train to Chaing Mai. I wanted to see what the fastest train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai is like. Spoiler alert, it’s slow and there is no way it can compete with flying.

Phitsanulok also has an airport with flights to Don Muang Airport in Bangkok. I was sitting next to a student who was going back home for a visit, and he said he usually flies but he was trying out the train for a change. If students are electing to fly then it shows how inefficient the railway is.

There is a plan to build a high-speed railway to Chiang Mai, which could reduce the travel time to Phitsanulok to 90 minutes. Here are some images of what the Phitsanulok Station might look like on this new line.

- Proposed Phitsanulok high-speed railway station.

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