Prime Minister Hun Sen said in his April 4 speech that the Cambodian government is considering the development of high-speed railways to improve the country’s railway infrastructure. Cambodia’s railway network currently consists of two outdated tracks, one of which was originally built by France at the time when the country was part of French Indochina, and another in the 1960s with international aid. The old route runs from the capital Phnom Penh to Poipet on the Thai border, and another from Phnom Penh to the southern resort and port city of Sihanoukville. The two lines have long been dilapidated,…
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech on April 4 that the Cambodian government is considering the development of high-speed railways to improve the country’s railway infrastructure.
Cambodia’s railway network currently consists of two outdated tracks, one originally built by the French when the country was part of French Indochina, and the other with international aid in the 1960s.
The old route runs from the capital Phnom Penh to Poipet on the Thai border, and another from Phnom Penh to the southern resort and port city of Sihanoukville.
Both lines are already in dire straits and have only been repaired with international help in the past few years, but still need to be modernized to increase their current operating speed from 20 to 30 kilometers per hour.
Increase shipping speed
“We are considering railway development and looking for development partners to build high-speed rail on existing railways,” Hun Sen said, adding that the Ministry of Public Works and Transport has been entrusted with finding solutions and finding development partners to modernize the railway line Retrofit to increase shipping speed.
He pointed out that the existing traditional railway system “did not respond” to Cambodia’s socio-economic development needs, nor did it facilitate domestic shipping and connections with Cambodia’s neighbors.
Such a development partner, which has been named China Railway Group several times in the past, said it was ready to develop investment plans for Cambodia’s high-speed rail system. State-owned China Railway Group, through a subsidiary, builds and operates the new high-speed railway in neighboring Laos.
look back
The northern line from Phnom Penh to Poipet, 386 kilometers long, was built between 1929 and 1942, as described during the French colonial period.
The Southern Railway was built between 1960 and 1969 with the assistance of France, West Germany and China, with a total length of 264 kilometers.
During the Khmer Rouge’s Democratic Kampuchea regime in the second half of the 1970s, both railway lines were severely damaged, some parts of which were completely destroyed, and were later rebuilt and repaired through Cambodia’s cooperation with the Asian Development Bank, Australian Institutions International Development and Australian company Toll Holdings.
Today, the two lines are operated by Royal Railways, part of the Royal Group, Cambodia’s largest business group.
