The deputy-director continued by saying prime-minister Thongloun Sisoulith had authorised the resumption of a project shelved in 2011 to lay the remaining 7.5kms of track for the Bangkok-Nong Khai-Vientiane route. Trains from Thailand currently terminate at Thanaleng railway station.
Opened in 2009, Thanaleng is just across the Mekong River from Thailand and is 16kms from downtown Vientiane. The station, also known as Dongphosy, handles about 3,000 passengers monthly. The new terminus of the line will still not be in downtown Vientiane but in Khamsavat Village which is about three kilometres away.
A senior manager with the Laos Railway Management Department said that if the line was extended to Khamsavat more people would use the service. The project was originally suspended while Lao authorities decided how they were going to connect the 1-metre gauge track from Thailand to a proposed 1.435-metre gauge line from China.
12GO ASIA provides varied travel choices for the Bangkok-Nong Khai-Vientiane trip. We sell tickets for trains, buses and flights on this route at very competitive prices.
Laos Railway link to Vientiane gets green light
News in Asia
The Lao Railway Department’s deputy-director has announced the government has given the go ahead for the completion of a Vientiane-Thailand rail connection. Sonesack Nhansana told media sources in the Lao capital the missing link between Thanaleng Station and Vientiane’s Xaysettha District would complete the line from Thailand.