Anyone got any insight into the "new' Railroad? I've looked on the internet and nothing new. It seems to be there, but it doesn't seem to be carrying the containers from the port in Snookyville. Crazed/drunk/stoned container drivers/trucks and beer trucks are still on Hwy #4 (the death highway from hell.)

Didn't the big Oz company Toll take it over for 30 years? Great looking art-deco passenger terminal in PP is all closed up and unused for like forever. Why are the trucks still hauling the containers even though they built a new railroad and a new dry port to service it? Could it be tied to corruption, but there is no corruption in Cambo because there is an anti-corruption government department.

Sailorman wrote:Anyone got any insight into the "new' Railroad? I've looked on the internet and nothing new. It seems to be there, but it doesn't seem to be carrying the containers from the port in Snookyville. Crazed/drunk/stoned container drivers/trucks and beer trucks are still on Hwy #4 (the death highway from hell.)

Didn't the big Oz company Toll take it over for 30 years? Great looking art-deco passenger terminal in PP is all closed up and unused for like forever. Why are the trucks still hauling the containers even though they built a new railroad and a new dry port to service it? Could it be tied to corruption, but there is no corruption in Cambo because there is an anti-corruption government department.

Maybe the trucks are still the cheaper option - cost of corruption included? Last I read on the subject there were no immediate plans for passenger service on those lines, so the art-deco passenger terminal will remain unused either way.

The Australian company already sold all its stocks to Royal Group company (Kit Meng's company). I think my hope to travel via train to my hometown is being faded. i guess we will have no train for another 10 years.

Generals selling off steel and so on. You know, the usual... Last I heard still had two trains per day leaving Sihanoukville to Kampot onwards. Somehow I never notice them in PP though.

As above, but mainly they reckon it was all about grabbing railway land. Last I heard ASEAN were thinking of skipping Cambodia in its SEA train network. We'll see what happens next.
http://easts.info/on-line/proceedings/vol9/PDF/P71.pdf

Although Cambodia is the important connecting point of China – Asean rail route
between northeastern to south, but there have been unclear discussions among countries
which are involved in connecting to this rail network, and the problem of Cambodia –Thai
border dispute around Preah Vihear Temple has marred the discussions.

CONCLUSIONS
ASEAN connectivity has a goal for the movement of people and commodity under the
strategy of the seamless boundary plan. The economic growth of China has been expanding to
ASEAN and HSR networks are the transport linkages for promoting the seamless movement
of people and goods. China and ASEAN countries agree to build the railways networks
starting from Kunming in China to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and
Singapore. However, the HSR construction in each country has been delayed due to huge
investment costs and political impacts.

1. Theft of track for resale to scrap-iron merchants

2. Prices/terms of tender continually changing, even after approval

3. Compensation for land crossed continually raised by locals

4. About 12 hours from PP to Sinville now, the milk run.

it works to some extent - last time i was in kampot we were at one of the bars by the riverside near the railway bridge. there was a loud rumbling sound, the expats that live there said that it was the freight train and that it was normal to hear it every night at about that time, theres 2 trains every night one up and one down

dunno why the trains run at night but its one reason why we dont see trains

it seems a stupid project from the beginning. you only get the benefit from moving freight by rail over long distances. even now if you have a garment factory near phnom penh, you still have to use a truck to pick up at the factory then drive it to the dry port then move the container to the train. its probably cheaper and easier to just drive the truck to sihanoukville, its only 6 hours

It would have been better to build the tracks to battambang and Thailand first

and as for passanger trains, you can bet they cut corners and used the cheapest construction track and signalling possible so they could cream off money into the bosses pockets, so the trains would be so slow you would be better taking the bus

A two lane road is not transport friendly. You have a 40ft or 20ft container filled at your factory, its delivered to the dry port in PP, put on the train, offloaded in Snooky and put on a ship. Seems to work in every other country in the world. The reverse from Snooky to PP. I see the problem as only two trains a day, lack of rolling stock, corruption at the container ports, and bribes by the trucking companies.

A couple years ago I took a taxi from the PP airport to Snookyville. It was a holiday and HE had decreed that there would be no trucks on Hwy #4, maybe so he and his buds wouldn't spill their drinks on the way to party in Snooky. The taxi ride time was almost cut in half on the Death Highway from hell.

I experienced something similar around 2 years ago. 3 hrs on Giant Ibis that day.

not in every country sailerman, in the UK there are good railways and not much corruption, we still only move 9% of goods by rail. trucks go door to door