Today's weather: High = 14 Low = 6
Sunny and chilly
It was with great interest that I stumbled on this news article. Due to the long-term economic growth and emerging prosperity in both China and Thailand, it is very exciting to see these kind of developments take place -- especially as I have a keen interest in both countries.
A China-Thailand express highway has already been under construction for ages that is bound to be open soon -- if not already. The highway mainly connects Yunnan province with the Chiang Mai area of Thailand, more or less following the Mekong River. But it only skirts the top of Laos and doesn't really benefit that country directly, except for the area around Luang Namtha and near the Thai border.
On the other hand, this proposed high-speed railway looks to really benefit Laos. They definitely want to connect Beijing to Vientiane to Bangkok. It's still very much in the planning stages, we don't know much about routes, and the line wouldn't open until at least 2015. But we can easily deduce that the high-speed railway would have to pass through most of Laos in order to connect those 3 capital cities. We can also deduce that Vietnam is excluded from the proposal, as they didn't mention anything about Hanoi.
This is mainly a Sino-Thai project we're talking about, after all.
Based on all this, my best guess is they are going to piggyback this line with all the new bullet train construction in China right now, and somehow get a link going to Kunming. From Kunming, it could continue south into Laos, then through Luang Prabang, and then to Vientiane.
This is all just speculation, but I think they start with the Beijing-Wuhan connection soon to open. After Wuhan, there would be a considerable demand for high-speed rail to link Guilin, and then to Kunming. Those cities are all underserved right now by rail. I'm heding my bets that the Chinese government would love to connect Guilin and Kunming this way, and a line may already be in the works for all I know.
But the main problem with this route is that so much of it goes through mountains, especially the parts in and around Kunming and the Laos border. It would be a massive engineering feat with tunnel blasting and relocation of villagers galore.
Then again, I can't see much of an alternative to the mountains if they specifically want to link those 3 capital cities by train. Perhaps they could go through Nanning instead of Kunming. If they did this, there would be fewer mountains to contend with, but the route would be convoluted in order to avoid Vietnam.
It's all in the planning and discussion stages now, but I'd be eager to see what comes of this one.
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A HIGH-SPEED railway linking China, Laos and Thailand will be under construction next year, Thai and Laotian officials announced at the Seventh Seventh World Congress on High-Speed Rail in Beijing yesterday.
The bullet train project jointly invested by the three countries is expected to be completed in late 2015. It will boost trade in the ASEAN free trade area, according to the congress.
The new railway that will connect major border cities of China, Laos and Thailand will be used mainly for passenger transportation at the initial stage and for freight shipping later on, Xinhua reported today.
Suthep Thaugsuban, deputy prime minister of Thailand, said yesterday that the Thai parliament has already approved a framework for the Sino-Thai project, which was earlier projected to cost 480 billion baht (US$15.4 billion), Xinhua reported.
Suthep said he wished for an early start and finish of the highly-anticipated project to strengthen the ties with China and other Southeast Asian nations.
Somsavat Lengsavad, deputy prime minister of Laos, also said Laos and China have signed an agreement on bilateral cooperation in the construction of the high-speed railway which will link Vientiane, capital of Laos, with Beijing.
The officials didn't elaborate on a timetable or budget plan, saying it is still being discussed.
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Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=456728&type=National##ixzz17WdaHT5A
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