I noticed your post said "Remember, this line will link up with the one the Chinese are building through Laos from Kunming in China.."
Do you know if Is this ongoing at the moment? I googled the subject, but could only find an entry about a ground-breaking ceremony in Laos, and I don't think that was necessarily part of this route.

Has construction started and if so any idea of when it will reach the Nong Khai bridge?

This will all be standard gauge through Laos from what I can gather. When it reaches the bridge at Nong Khai, will there be two standard gauge tracks laid - maybe either side of the present narrow gauge 1 metre track?

Whatever happens the hold-ups, the traffic disruption and other matters will cause udon Thani to almost come to grinding stop when they deal with the numerous level crossings, Hopefully they put in a new one at the other end of the Station so that it will ease the traffic flow down past Nong Bua, or am I thinking logically again..................''note to self ...Stupid Boy ''

there is always the possibility that the new standard gauge railway will not even go through the center of the city.. It might be 15-20km either east or west to preclude expensive land purchases for the right of way.. Per the news article the surveying is to be done over the next year. You can bet land speculators will be following the surveyors!!

As for the construction of the rail line down through Laos, I too have not seen much in the news about it.. It will entail numerous tunnels, bridges, and cuts and engineering wise be far more difficult than the route from Bangkok to Nong Khai. If they've started it, as Google Map and Google Earth update you should be able to see the construction. The bridge across the Mekong would have to be a new one to accommodate a dual track standard gauge railway.. I can't see the current bridge with its one meter track able to expand to deal with the amount of rail traffic that will occur on the new railway.. Nowadays, I think they close the bridge twice a day for the train to pass over...

and in following my own advice, I searched around southern China for rail lines heading south.. The closest I could find was Yuxi which is about 500km north of the Lao border. The imagery is May 2014 and I don't see any apparent railway construction heading south.. Rather strange... Much the same over towards Burma. No railways heading down there. The Chinese were building that port on the Bay of Bengal with a planned highway/railway/pipeline heading northeast to China before the Burmese cancelled it due to "indigenous protests" from tribesmen in the area...

Thanks for your two informative replies.

It's purely interest on my part about the dual-track standard gauge project.

Whenever I ask Thais or ferangs who seem to have an opinion about it, there have been comments that "It's definitely going ahead and the Chinese have already started construction in Laos" or even that "They have started preparing to build the new track already here in Thailand". Neither comments seem to hold any water when I try to find some concrete evidence.
There's also some sloppy reporting in the Thai national English language press.

It was an interesting comment you made regarding the new route perhaps being up to 20km away from the existing narrow gauge track.
In itself that sounds a good idea, although it would make it more difficult for passengers to gain access a more remote station.
I can see the logic of the proposed route from Kaeng Khoi-Map Ta Phut not needing any urban access as that would be more for freight. But the Bangkok-Nong Khai and Bangkok-Map Ta Phut routes would, I'd guess, need to be more passenger orientated.

From what I can gather in the national press, the Thai & Chinese governments are due to sign an MOU in Beijing in December. If that comes to fruition, it seems that planning/construction "could" start in 2016.

As usual, I'm willing to be corrected on this.

yes, having the new rail line come through the center of Udon would be "convenient" but probably a nightmare for the unguarded grade crossings and buildings needing demolition to add a dual track roadbed to the current 1 meter gauge line (also due to be dual-tracked). So, if they built the track 20km west of Udon center, while it might not be walkably convenient, it certainly would still be conveniently close to the city via bus, taxi, lot-doo, songtaew, et al. The same would apply equally in Khon Khaen and Khorat. Putting the new rail right of way west of those cities would make contruction faster, simpler (less buildings to condemn) and allow building of a complete railway station interchange with highway linkage and perhaps even a light rail or Skytrain solution to get into each cities' downtown area.

But, unless my eyes deceive me, its going to take some heavy duty construction work for the Chinese to get their own rail connectivity down through southern China to the Lao border and another 300 or so kilometers with hundreds of tunnels and cuttings to get to Vientiane.. Then, add a heavy duty dual tracked rail bridge across the Mekong... Five years.. Maybe, if everything clicks perfectly...

parrot wrote:We were in Non Takai a few weeks ago......I took a photo of the stacks of rails. A villager told me: The rail is delivered to Thailand from China. It's trucked up from the port in Bangkok. At Non Takai, several 25m lengths (I think 3) are welded together (using a special machine). The resulting 75m lengths are then sent by special rail car to be put down as new track. The end result will be a dual track from Nongkai to BKK.

I asked the villager who we've known for years his opinion of the prospects of the Potash mine. He gave it little to no chance of operating in his lifetime. JHHO.

Another interesting thing about the new track. The rail ties are all made of cement.....wood is too expensive/difficult to obtain.

A monster of a big project.......it must be in the multi-billions of baht......the only improvement being a double track. Same old slow trains!

Nong Takai is my wife's home village. I was there for a couple of weeks in April and will be back at the end of December. Two years ago there was a hive of activity, bit since then I've seen little (if any) progress at all on the railway. I'll be interested to see if any has been made in the last 8 months.........

my conjecture was incorrect. It wasn't the double-tracking project but a re-tracking project where SRT was laying new roadbed, putting down concrete sleepers and installing new rails. That project from Nong Khai to Khorat (at least) appears to be completely finished along with installation of new level road crossings too..

Another conjecture was that the Nong Takai rail siding project would be part of the Potash mining start-up.. That remains to be seen.. Parrot posted information and graphics showing the "Udon South" mine would be established just north of Nong Takai village east of the railway and with leeching ponds and yards extending into the open fields northeast of Nong Takai village.. His last posting on it included a clipping from the BKK Post which said it would open after the last Environmental Impact Assessment some time around the end of 2014.. I've driven through the area many times and seen no indication of any construction in support of the mining project in that area.. I do see a large industrial facility with massive warehouses just east of Udon which photo comparison shows might possibly be a small minehead for the "Udon North" potash fields... Yet another potential project in the Nong Takai area is the planned Udon "outer ring" road that graphics show probably looping east and west off the Friendship Highway right about where the Nong Takai village road goes in from Rte 2 (Freindship Highway).. This is a long term plan evidently but who knows, when they start bulldozing we'll know its started..

Looks like double track, much less high speed rail won't happen in our life time
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... -rail-plan

here's an update on the KK to Nong Khai dual tracking project. EIA done.. no listed completion schedule in the video. It does say the contract will include the Thai=China high speed rail too.. So, I'm betting a large elevated viaduct from north of Udon through the city and descending to grade about 3km south of where the current rails cross the east side Ring Road.
It also includes the new railway from Phrae up to Chiang Rai and Chiang Khong which is scheduled for completion in 2571 and the new rail system from Ban Phai (south of KK) through Maha Sarakham, Roiet, the northern tip of Yasothon, to Mukdaha and terminating in Nakhon Phanom scheduled for completion 2569..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7ozfxjCs0g

deeper into this video the narrator shows an overhead view of the current Friendship Bridge at Nong Khai. The view shows a planned 3 track bridge (2 SGR 1 one meter) between Lao and Thai. The narrator states an MOA is done already. It will carry the Thai-Lao-China high speed rail and the one meter gauge SRT track that currently crosses on the vehicle bridge and terminates at Thanleng Station. Currently the SRT one meter track is being extended a bit over 8km to near That Luang.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zenfaj0mGo

This is from Nimda Variety a month ago. It covers what appears to be planning approval for the SRT KK to Nong Khai dual tracking project as well as the Khorat to Nong Khai High speed rail project. It shows conceptual drawings and diagrams of each train station to include Udon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwwKKu_kPTc

Without my looking at the YT, is there any indication where all the containers will he transferred from the Chinese trains to the Thai trucks? Train stations suggest where people get on and off. Earlier (and other) posts suggest an Udon railway "bypass"? There's that huge industrial estate being prepped just down the Mitrapharp which I understand will be straddled by the existing railway line and the hypothetical hi-speed one? I am sure Udon and KK will be fighting hard to get the freight yards more than the commuter stations.

The official opening and the first train trip has happened.
Good looking train.



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Info on the Thaiger yesterday about Thailand buying a load of 40 year old trains from Japan, some of which are "earmarked" for the UT/NK/Vientiane route

The Thanalang Logistics yard on Laos just north of the Friendship Bridge is now operational. This yard will allow transfer of 20 and 40 foot containers from freight flat cars coming down from China either to trucks or to a parallel meter gauge track that goes back across the Friendship Bridge to Nong Khai and onwards down the SRT tracks.. SRT put up a video over a week ago showing a 40 car train carrying 2 X 20 foot containers per car heading from Laam Chabaeng up the SRT railway to Nong Khai and over to Thanalang for onward transfer/shipment to China. So, the route is there although with only a single track from Khon Khaen to NongKhai that is rather a chokepoint.

Nong Khai has a large switching/freight yard a few kilometers south of Nong Khai station located here: https://www.google.co.th/maps/@17.84574 ... !1e3?hl=en
Streetview: https://www.google.co.th/maps/@17.84569 ... 6656?hl=en


within Udon the main rail station has multiple tracks for shunting freights. Also just north of the ring road on the south side is a freight yard of sorts although neither have the overhead lifting cranes for rapid transfer of containers onto trucks.. https://www.google.co.th/maps/@17.37195 ... !1e3?hl=en
street view of the Nong Khon Kwang switching/freight yard from streetview: https://www.google.co.th/maps/@17.37491 ... 6656?hl=en

There is a rudimentary freight yard at Nong Ta Kai about 20km south of Udon where Mitr Phon Sugar Factory (south of Khumpawapi on Rte 2) loads containers of sugar onto flat cars using large fork lifts... no loading docks.. It is touted as SRT as a freight point for the new industrial area a couple of kilomters away.
Why they aren't already building spurs into the new industrial area is unknown. https://www.google.co.th/maps/@17.26819 ... !1e3?hl=en

streetview shot of the Nong Takai freight yard: https://www.google.co.th/maps/@17.26564 ... 8192?hl=en

The current Udon Thani freight yard has one (1) container-handling fork lift. The ungraded red dirt where it mostly operates doesn't really constitute a freight-handling yard. The huge, concrete-surfaced but largely unused parking lot immediately behind the station is another example of SRT cluelessness and greed. Looks like maybe UD Town couldn't afford the parking lot rent any more?

The facility "north of the ring road on the south side" without any sort of container handling is nothing more than a large, rural siding.

Any expansion of SRT's sugar-loading facility south of town is probably also hampered by SRT's exorbitant rental rates.

SRT makes no money on passenger operations, loses bunches.. I'm not sure on their freight operations. However, the land it "owns" throughout the country as part of their rail right of ways is a cash cow. I'm sure UD Town, on land owned by the SRT is profitiable. In the US, it seems that any large industrial area anywhere near a railway has rail spurs into it. Frankly, I'm surprised that the giant Mitr Phon sugar refinery south of the Khumpawapi turn off didn't have its own rail spur years ago. Kinda short-sighted on the part of SRT... Instead the company has to truck containers to the Nong Takai freight yard sidings that is at least 30-40 kilomters north of the factory.

The SRT though does have concurrent dual-tracking projects throughout Thailand.. The one from Saraburi with thre tunnels, one kilomters long and a viaduct up to 50 meters high near Muak Lek aren't small projects.. The dual tracking from Khorat to KK was finished a couple of years ago with all new stations and a modern frieght yard at Ban Phai. The new railway from Ban Phai to Roiet-Mukdahan-Nakhon Phanom is funded although I'm not sure when construction will beign.. The down side on the dual tracking projects is the relatively slow pace and changing completion dates...

Maybe K. Mitr Phol and K. SRT Boss already have an agreement where the 'rent' does get paid to 'someone' hence no need for the SRT to build anything extra... or get any money from Mitr Phol and thus they remain perpetually broke. Maybe the sugar trucking company that Mitr Phol uses belongs to a K. SRT Boss family member?

latest update I can find on the dual tracking project KK to Nong Khai. To start next year and finish in 3. This will include elevating the rails through Udon city and a brand new train station. So, you think the ring road is a mess? Wait till they start building the elevated from north of Rte 2 where the current rail grade corssing is located and the entire train station build down town. Nong Bua will be a traffic nightmare!! . I wonder if they'll consolidate the high speed construction pillars with the dual tracking? Nah, that'd make too much sense. Info on the segment at 2:20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8ipv7pb7tM&t=257s