Long Train Runnin'
Engineer
Not really a full blown trip report, but I thought I would take a few minutes to write up a little something about a rail journey I took last week. As I keep chasing new countries to visit the list starts to include more and more places I know less and less about. Myanmar would fall into that category of a place I had some vague ideas about, an easy to use E-Visa and good airfares. That’s pretty much a recipe for me to pay a visit to a new place. If visiting temples isn’t something that you want to do from dawn to dusk you find that Myanmar runs a tad short on actual tourist sites.
I was aware that they had a long distance rail network that connected certain parts of the country, with my timeframe a long haul journey wasn’t in the cards, but after arrival I learned they offer suburban trains including a circle line that takes about 3 hours. What better way to spend a morning in Yangon then puttering around on a train slated to travel at an average speed of 10 miles an hour.
The ticket set me back the equivalent of $0.17 so it was the cheapest train ticket I ever purchased in Asia edging out a $0.80 ticket I had purchased in Malaysia. Although it still couldn’t touch my mere $0.06 subway fare in Kiev. A record I don’t think can be broken. Before I landed in Yangon I thought I had a pretty good handle on traveling through Southeast Asia, but Yangon was proving to be a little more challenging. I have ridden trains in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore and been to the only train station in Laos. So I figured it would be pretty straightforward here in Myanmar.
Armed with a piece of paper I had the hotel write up for me asking for a ticket on the Circle Line train in the local language I started the 20 minute walk to Yangon Central Railway station. The station is quite large, and oddly reminded me somewhat of Philadelphia 30th Street Station. Not that they were similar in their designs, but rather their functions. Both Yangon Central and 30th Street are divided into two areas; one serving intercity trains while the other serves the commuter operation. Once I found the ticket agent it was a pretty painless process he simply wrote the time of the train on the same piece of paper I had slipped him. He also spoke some English, and told me to have a seat and wait he’d come get me and put me on the right train.
I spent about 20 minutes on the platform waiting for my 9:35AM departure. All kinds of trains rolled in during that time. Some of the rolling stock looked well past its prime. There were absolutely no announcements of any type everyone just seemed to know what train was what. I was really starting to wonder what I was going to get myself into. I knew that expecting an air-conditioned coach was certainly out of the question. I guess in a sense I was rather looking forward to open windows and vestibules to look out from. At around 9:30 the ticket agent appeared and told 2 Australians and me that we needed track 4. We were standing on the platform for track 7 so of course no thought was paid by the employee in gesturing that we should simply walk over 3 active tracks to where we needed to be.
Two minutes later a train pulled up, and fortunately or maybe unfortunately it was by far in the best shape I had seen in the station. In some ways I was hoping to ride along on a wooden seat in a well-worn railcar. What was waiting in front of us was a set of diesel multiple units from Japan. I would guess the cars were originally made in the 1960s. Clearly they had a taken on a second life here in Myanmar. While it was still not air conditioned there were fans along the ceiling, and padded bench seating. It was a pretty stylish ride for a mere 17 cents. From here I’ll let the pictures do the talking. All told the loop took a little of over three hours. I spent about an hour standing pretty much behind the engineer with the front door open it was quite a view, and a refreshing breeze. Although after a while we got caught in a downpour, so I retreated back to a seat.
It was a pretty interesting experience, and I am glad that I made the journey. It seems like good practice for the trains that run through the Sri Lankan countryside that I hope to catch a ride on soon.
Anyway I will let my pictures do the talking for me.
Thanks for taking a look. I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to ask any questions!
I was aware that they had a long distance rail network that connected certain parts of the country, with my timeframe a long haul journey wasn’t in the cards, but after arrival I learned they offer suburban trains including a circle line that takes about 3 hours. What better way to spend a morning in Yangon then puttering around on a train slated to travel at an average speed of 10 miles an hour.
The ticket set me back the equivalent of $0.17 so it was the cheapest train ticket I ever purchased in Asia edging out a $0.80 ticket I had purchased in Malaysia. Although it still couldn’t touch my mere $0.06 subway fare in Kiev. A record I don’t think can be broken. Before I landed in Yangon I thought I had a pretty good handle on traveling through Southeast Asia, but Yangon was proving to be a little more challenging. I have ridden trains in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore and been to the only train station in Laos. So I figured it would be pretty straightforward here in Myanmar.
Armed with a piece of paper I had the hotel write up for me asking for a ticket on the Circle Line train in the local language I started the 20 minute walk to Yangon Central Railway station. The station is quite large, and oddly reminded me somewhat of Philadelphia 30th Street Station. Not that they were similar in their designs, but rather their functions. Both Yangon Central and 30th Street are divided into two areas; one serving intercity trains while the other serves the commuter operation. Once I found the ticket agent it was a pretty painless process he simply wrote the time of the train on the same piece of paper I had slipped him. He also spoke some English, and told me to have a seat and wait he’d come get me and put me on the right train.
I spent about 20 minutes on the platform waiting for my 9:35AM departure. All kinds of trains rolled in during that time. Some of the rolling stock looked well past its prime. There were absolutely no announcements of any type everyone just seemed to know what train was what. I was really starting to wonder what I was going to get myself into. I knew that expecting an air-conditioned coach was certainly out of the question. I guess in a sense I was rather looking forward to open windows and vestibules to look out from. At around 9:30 the ticket agent appeared and told 2 Australians and me that we needed track 4. We were standing on the platform for track 7 so of course no thought was paid by the employee in gesturing that we should simply walk over 3 active tracks to where we needed to be.
Two minutes later a train pulled up, and fortunately or maybe unfortunately it was by far in the best shape I had seen in the station. In some ways I was hoping to ride along on a wooden seat in a well-worn railcar. What was waiting in front of us was a set of diesel multiple units from Japan. I would guess the cars were originally made in the 1960s. Clearly they had a taken on a second life here in Myanmar. While it was still not air conditioned there were fans along the ceiling, and padded bench seating. It was a pretty stylish ride for a mere 17 cents. From here I’ll let the pictures do the talking. All told the loop took a little of over three hours. I spent about an hour standing pretty much behind the engineer with the front door open it was quite a view, and a refreshing breeze. Although after a while we got caught in a downpour, so I retreated back to a seat.
It was a pretty interesting experience, and I am glad that I made the journey. It seems like good practice for the trains that run through the Sri Lankan countryside that I hope to catch a ride on soon.
Anyway I will let my pictures do the talking for me.
Thanks for taking a look. I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to ask any questions!
