On 7/18/2025 at 1:21 PM, josephbloggs said:

International firms will definitely be bidding on the construction but it won't be financed by China unlike the other places you mentioned.

 

Construction will be awarded to Italian-Thai Development and China Railways Number 10 (Thailand) Co., Ltd., and it will all end happily ever after.

 

Oh, wait...

5 hours ago, NanLaew said:

 

A consultant friend of mine was involved with the on-again, off-again negotiations with the Chinese during the previous administration. In exchange for providing the financing, one of the concessions the Chinese demanded at one stage was not just ownership of the rail bed, but "rights" to the swath of land extending 1000 m on either side of the track. This wasn't agreeable to the Thai government at the time but there's no telling if this has been revisited in subsequent negotiations.

 

BTW, for such a major piece of strategically important national infrastructure that has allegedly already been through several stages of public notice and community approval, are there any route maps for the final, as yet unconstructed two-thirds of the line existing in the public domain?

 

There's also the debate on how exactly this will dovetail with the existing Lao high-speed at the Mekhong River border.

 

 

 

https://photos.smugmug.com/Future-Southeast-Asia/Railways/Thailand-Railways/i-cBd9Tms/0/db85e36f/O/new-rail-road-bridge-thailand-laos.png

6 hours ago, NanLaew said:

 

A consultant friend of mine was involved with the on-again, off-again negotiations with the Chinese during the previous administration. In exchange for providing the financing, one of the concessions the Chinese demanded at one stage was not just ownership of the rail bed, but "rights" to the swath of land extending 1000 m on either side of the track. This wasn't agreeable to the Thai government at the time but there's no telling if this has been revisited in subsequent negotiations.are there an

BTW, for such a major piece of strategically important national infrastructure that has allegedly already been through several stages of public notice and community approval,

y route maps for the final, as yet unconstructed two-thirds of the line existing in the public domain?

 

There's also the debate on how exactly this will dovetail with the existing Lao high-speed at the Mekhong River border.

 

This is the best map I could find on Google-

 

 

 

A new Friendship Bridge is proposed for HST and metre gauge rail traffic across the Mekong between Nong Khai and Vientiane, alongside the existing road/rail bridge.

Please note this is not the final plan. The project when completed will enable HST trains to run between Bangkok and Kunming via Vientiane. No doubt there will be container freight trains in addition to the passenger trains, bringing in a flood of cheap and unreliable Chinese consumer goods.

 

2 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

 

This is the best map I could find on Google-

 

 

 

A new Friendship Bridge is proposed for HST and metre gauge rail traffic across the Mekong between Nong Khai and Vientiane, alongside the existing road/rail bridge.

Please note this is not the final plan. The project when completed will enable HST trains to run between Bangkok and Kunming via Vientiane. No doubt there will be container freight trains in addition to the passenger trains, bringing in a flood of cheap and unreliable Chinese consumer goods.

 

 

Here's my map, not much better when it comes to any detail but it indicates a "depot" of some sort between Udon and Nong Khai.

 

 

It will be interesting to see how the speed, efficiency and cost of existing containerised road freight competes with that.

The $15 Billion Train Connecting Thailand to China

 

About 13:30 long and goes into some detail.

7 hours ago, BeastOfBodmin said:

The $15 Billion Train Connecting Thailand to China

 

About 13:30 long and goes into some detail.

Thanks for sharing. That VO grated though.