There's now only one train service in Cambodia, from Battambang to
Phnom Penh. Previously running every second day, in 2006 it now
runs once a week. However, it's a great adventure if it fits
your schedule. You can use it as part of a Bangkok-Phnom Penh
journey, see the Bangkok-Phnom Penh
section below for full details.
Phnom Penh ►
Battambang
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Battambang ► Phnom Penh
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Days of running:. |
Saturdays only |
Days of running:. |
Sundays only |
|
Phnom Penh
|
depart |
06:20 |
Battambang
|
depart |
06:40 |
|
Pursat
|
arr/dep |
14:00 |
Pursat
|
arr/dep |
12:00 |
|
Battambang
|
arrive |
20:00 |
Phnom Penh
|
arrive |
19:00 |
Basic seats and
passenger-carrying freight
cars (flat wagons and boxcars) only.
Fare for foreigners (in the
seats car): 25,300 riel (£3 or $5). Locals pay around 15,000 riels.
Note: Rumours
(including a Lonely Planet entry) suggest this train no longer runs,
but it was positively confirmed as still running in June 2008.
Subsequent reports have said that it may not be running, or at least,
running anywhere near reliably. If you have any
feedback,
please email me.
Phnom Penh to Battambang
is 275km. Map
of train routes in Southeast Asia.
There are currently NO trains on the Phnom
Penh - Kampot - Sihanoukville route or on the Battambang-Sisophon route.
There has been talk for years of rebuilding the railway to the Thai
border, and building a new line to Saigon, thus linking Europe and
Singapore by rail without a gap, but no action has yet been taken.
Riding this train is an
adventure, so don't expect luxury - the trains are very basic. Up-market
passengers travel in passenger coaches like these, the rest travel in goods wagons..! For a remarkable 3-minute online
video montage about riding the Phnom Penh-Battambang train, see
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJ4CC1deHE. Also see a blog by
traveller Ian Richardson, at
http://carbonfootprints.blogspot.com/2007/03/only-train-in-cambodia.html.
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Above:
The weekly train to Battambang at Phnom Penh station.
Photo courtesy
of John Clearwater. |
|
Above: Inside the
seats cars...
Photo courtesy of
Barry Rogge. |
 |
|
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| Above: The now weekly train
from Battambang to Phnom Penh. Photo courtesy of Yme
Kvistedal |
|
Above: The boxcars become air-conditioned
sleepers..! Photo courtesy of Yme Kvistedal |
Barry Rogge travelled
from Battambang to Pursat in January 2008: The ticket
window at the Battambang train station opened at 6:00 am. I was joined
by five other foreigners for this trip. The train left 40 minutes late
at 7:20 am due to a broken locomotive. The train consisted of two
passenger cars, one enclosed box car, and one flatbed car. We
were allowed to ride on the roof as much as we liked and were joined
by Cambodians as well. The trip to Pursat took seven hours. Along the
way we saw bamboo trains and stopped at many villages. The cars
and tracks are still in bad shape as described in the earlier reports.
The train was full of fruit sellers transporting pineapples and
bananas to different markets. They all travelled with hammocks.
Unless you want to eat pineapples and bananas, it is wise to buy food
before the trip as food sellers never showed up.
Donncha Cronin travelled
in September 2007: "Phnom Penh has been spruced up with a paint
job and there's a fine 1912 Franco-Belge steam loco on display...in
better shape than the diesels! Mothballed steam locos lurk in the
locked-up sheds outside Phnom Penh. They don't let you get on the roof
any more. Apparently, about 10 people got thrown off on one
occasion and now the staff discourage roof-sitting on the 'official'
passenger trains. Unofficial travel on goods trains is possible to
folks 'in the know' down to Sihanoukville, by means of a small bribe."
John Clearwater reports in June 2006:
"Many people bring hammocks, and this morning there was a goat in one
of the three passenger cars. There was also a flatbed and two boxcars,
all for passengers. The train is pulled by a Czech yard-engine
made in 1994 in Prague. Food and drink are available for sale on
the platform for an hour prior to departure. It was scheduled t leave
at 06:40, but left at 06:15, so being early is a virtue here, if no
where else in Cambodia."
In March 2006, traveller Yme Kvistedal
reports: "There is currently only one official train per week
running in Cambodia! This one departs Phnom Penh every Saturday at
6.20am to Batambong, and returns the next day, every Sunday, at
6.40am. The price for a foreigner is currently 16,500 riel for the
entire distance. When I took the train from Batambong to Phnom Penh
this Sunday (the 12th march 2006), there where no apparent technical
difficulties and entire trip (290km) took 18 hours. There was however
a theatre group who performed off one of the carriages on two longer
stops, which might have delayed the train by an hour at most."
Traveller
Andrew Rafuse describes the trip: "I went
from B’bang to PP, after having arrived at B’bang from Siem Reap
by boat. The train left shortly after 6:30 a.m. There are
two fares, one for locals and one twice as much for foreigners.
As a foreigner you
actually get a seat on a coach, as opposed to having to ride on the
roof or on a flat bed railcar or box car. The train ride itself
is a blast. Think of it as a village on wheels. It stops
at all sorts of villages, picking up and dropping off some passengers,
but mostly just making the aisles available for beggars and vendors of
snacks. Also, villagers will come onto the train to socialize
with friends relatives and acquaintances while the train is stopped.
At these times, the train is almost like a jammed village market.
The rail bed is poorly maintained, so the carriage rocks quite a bit.
The interior is also poorly maintained. My seat was not properly
bolted to the floor, which required all those on the seat (which was a
front and back bench) to coordinate their movements when getting up or
sitting down."
Traveller Patrick Degan reports from a trip
in 2005: "The train takes a little more than 14hrs to go the one way
(20kph I'm sure is the reason). I purchased my ticket and got a
seat at about 6:25 a.m. and we left promptly at 6:30. The
conductor on the train spoke relatively good English and told me that
if I wanted to stretch my legs at any point then I was welcome to join
him on the rooftop. Hesitant at first to the offer, I joined him
and he explained to me while sitting up top where the Khmer Rouge had
been fighting and where certain areas were still very hostile.
There were many other natives on the roof so I stayed up there for the
majority of the ride and was given a plethora of beautiful vistas
including chasing the sun set. I was very fortunate to have had
such an uninterrupted cultural experience as this, while I'm sure that
this has been done before by other travellers before me, but I believe
that it takes a certain type of person to take such a trip as
underdeveloped as this."
Feedback
from travellers who have used this route between Bangkok and Phnom
Penh or Siem Reap would be appreciated, as information is difficult to come by.
Day
1, take
the daily 05:55 train from Bangkok (Hualamphong station) arriving in
Aranyaprathet at 11:35. Aranyaprathet is just a few kilometres from the
Cambodian frontier. There's
also a 13:05
train from Bangkok arriving Aranyaprathet at 17:35, but this is too
late to move on from the frontier and you will have to spend the
night at Poiphet. These
trains are 3rd class only (pictured, right), but they are clean, spacious and it's a
pleasant and enjoyable ride, clickety clacking along with a breeze
blowing through the open window. The fare is only 58
baht (80p/$1.50).
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