Friday, April 08, 2005
UN proposes to rebuild the Burma Thailand Railway
It appears the United Nations has proposed a plan that includes rebuilding the Burma Thailand Railway.
A Google search turns up the most interesting and unexpected things.
I was looking for one fact as I edit The Sonkrai Tribunal, the height of Three Pagoda Pass between Thailand and Myanmar. (220 metres by the way)
I found the reference in a United Nations report on what's called the TransAsian Railway, an ambitious plan to join most of the rail lines of Asia. And that plan includes rebuilding the link that was once the Burma Thailand Railway, also called the Railway of Death.
After the Second World War, Great Britain sold the railway to Thailand for £1.5 million but it proved to be both dangerous and uneconomic and the line north of Nam Tok was torn up. There is local and tourist traffic from Kanchanaburi to Nam Tok today.
The 1999 report proposes rebuilding the length that was torn up from the current last station at Nam Tok back up to Three Pagoda Pass and then back to down to Thanbyuzayat.
An alternative route would go south in Myanmar from Ye to Dawai cross into Thailand at Bang Bong Tee and join the existing line at Nam Tok.
If this dream ever works (and politics would play a big part) it might be possible, one day, in the future, to take a train from Frankfurt to Bangkok, via Tehran and India through the mountains on the rebuilt Burma-Thailand Railway.
According to the UN report Thailand and Myanmar actually had a meeting in 1998 to discuss the feasibility of the the two routes. (Details on page 51 of the report, link below).
The Three Pagoda Pass route would follow the old rail line to the current Khao Laem dam where it would follow the route of the current highway around the reservoir to the pass. The plans call for three new bridges crossing the Kwai Noi, the Hui Yae and the Precam Nai. (Map of the proposed railway is on page 53).
Within Mynamar the new railway would follow the old Second World War Route, to Thanbyuzayat, "and could utilize 12 of the old station sites."
The cost of this new Burma-Thailand Railway, using modern equipment and labour paid according to local conditions (not slaves) would be US $1.75 million per kilometre, for a total of US $268 million in Thailand and US $192 million in Myanmar.
It also notes that the alternative southern route via Dawai and Nam Tok would cost less, $262 million as opposed to $460 million and generate higher freight tonnage, thus justifying the investment. (Possible offshore oil is also a motivation for the southern route).
The railway plan is from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
You can find the main page for the TransAsian Railway Southern Corridor at this link.
There you can either click on the green graphic for the full report.
Or
Download the report in PDF format Development of the Trans-Asian Railway: Trans-Asian Railway in the Southern Corridor of Asia-Europe Routes, 1999.
11:50 PM posted by Robin Rowland
Permanent Link
Links to this post
It appears the United Nations has proposed a plan that includes rebuilding the Burma Thailand Railway.
A Google search turns up the most interesting and unexpected things.
I was looking for one fact as I edit The Sonkrai Tribunal, the height of Three Pagoda Pass between Thailand and Myanmar. (220 metres by the way)
I found the reference in a United Nations report on what's called the TransAsian Railway, an ambitious plan to join most of the rail lines of Asia. And that plan includes rebuilding the link that was once the Burma Thailand Railway, also called the Railway of Death.
After the Second World War, Great Britain sold the railway to Thailand for £1.5 million but it proved to be both dangerous and uneconomic and the line north of Nam Tok was torn up. There is local and tourist traffic from Kanchanaburi to Nam Tok today.
The 1999 report proposes rebuilding the length that was torn up from the current last station at Nam Tok back up to Three Pagoda Pass and then back to down to Thanbyuzayat.An alternative route would go south in Myanmar from Ye to Dawai cross into Thailand at Bang Bong Tee and join the existing line at Nam Tok.
If this dream ever works (and politics would play a big part) it might be possible, one day, in the future, to take a train from Frankfurt to Bangkok, via Tehran and India through the mountains on the rebuilt Burma-Thailand Railway.
According to the UN report Thailand and Myanmar actually had a meeting in 1998 to discuss the feasibility of the the two routes. (Details on page 51 of the report, link below).
The Three Pagoda Pass route would follow the old rail line to the current Khao Laem dam where it would follow the route of the current highway around the reservoir to the pass. The plans call for three new bridges crossing the Kwai Noi, the Hui Yae and the Precam Nai. (Map of the proposed railway is on page 53).
Within Mynamar the new railway would follow the old Second World War Route, to Thanbyuzayat, "and could utilize 12 of the old station sites."
The cost of this new Burma-Thailand Railway, using modern equipment and labour paid according to local conditions (not slaves) would be US $1.75 million per kilometre, for a total of US $268 million in Thailand and US $192 million in Myanmar.
It also notes that the alternative southern route via Dawai and Nam Tok would cost less, $262 million as opposed to $460 million and generate higher freight tonnage, thus justifying the investment. (Possible offshore oil is also a motivation for the southern route).
The railway plan is from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
You can find the main page for the TransAsian Railway Southern Corridor at this link.
There you can either click on the green graphic for the full report.
Or
Download the report in PDF format Development of the Trans-Asian Railway: Trans-Asian Railway in the Southern Corridor of Asia-Europe Routes, 1999.
11:50 PM posted by Robin Rowland
Permanent Link
