First train to Laos

Laos will be connected to the outside world for the first time by rail, when a new link to Thailand opens next week. Andrew Spooner reports

* Andrew Spooner
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 February 2009 11.43 GMT
* Article history

Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge over the Mekong

On track at last ... the new railway line runs over the Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge. Photograph: Nik Wheeler/Corbis

Next week, Laos will be connected to the outside world for the first time by rail when a new link opens across the Mekong river to Thailand.

Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand will officially open the line on Thursday 5 March, and the first train to carry passengers in and out of Laos will start running on Friday morning, according to the Thai state railway.

The people of Laos have been waiting a long time for this moment – around two years since the US$6m project first broke ground in 2007, and a year after the line was originally due to open.

The first train will leave Nong Khai in Thailand at 9.10am and arrive at its destination, Tha na Lang, at approximately 9.25am. We are talking about a 3.5km stretch of track here – one that runs over the Mekong, via the Friendship Bridge and connects the existing Thai line to Tha na Lang - its only stop - just outside the Laos capital of Vientiane.

At the moment, Tha Na Lang is just a bright, shiny railway station; there is not much in the way of a village or town or anything else here. Undoubtedly, with the advent of the railway age, this will change as Tha Na Lang will become the preferred jump-off point for visitors to Vientiane, roughly 20 miles up the Mekong – travellers will likely take a tuk-tuk or bus for the short hop into the Laos capital.

Nong Khai, on the Thai side of the Friendship Bridge, is a different matter being a well-established travellers' hub with great guesthouses, a handsome Mekong-side promenade and a run of French colonial architecture.

There are also plans to extend the line into Vientiane but, given the difficulties in opening this tiny stretch of track, that could be many years off yet. What is certain is that travellers will for the first time be able to take the train from the Thai capital to the Laos capital – almost. And the 620km rail journey from Bangkok to Nong Khai is worth making, as it winds its way through Thailand's largest region, Isaan, a vast plateau filled with antiquities, paddy fields and lush forest parks.

Isaan is also the least-visited part of the country – without beaches or luxury resorts and considered backward by the Thai establishment (the area was also a bedrock for Communist Party support during the 1970s) - it has never been given the attention it deserves. Yet, with the opening of the new line, Isaan is expected to become an essential stop for visitors travelling to and from Laos.