Question about Thailand Railways
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Seaboard92
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I look forward to reading that excellent trip report. Probably my favorite trip report writer here, and that includes my own. I look up to you.
Metra Electric Rider
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There were some episodes of Globe Trekker (a bit dated now) that covered the Malaysian and Thai trains. They seemed clean and safer than buses at the time. Please do a trip report for us!
jis
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Both AC First Class Sleeper compartments and AC Second Class Sleepers are clean and comfortable. The Second Class Sleepers are open sections with bays and at some of them have windows for the upper berth. IIRC they are Hyundai, now Rotem, product.
George Harris
Engineer
A good source for general information about a country or location and transportation to from and within are the Lonely Planet guide books. I would strongly suggest you get the one for Thailand, and if there are ones more specific to your points of interest, get them also.
Whether to take the day train or the night train depends much on which is more important to you, the trip or the destination. If the trip, seeing the country side then go for the day train. Maybe think day train in one direction and night train in the other.
You may already know this, but here it is, anyway. The Thai Railway is one meter track gauge. That does not seem to slow them down much. I believe their speeds are up to 120 kph, maybe a little more. My only ride on the system was from Sungai Kolok to Hat Yai and Hat Yai to Padang Besar, and that was 25 years ago. My origin/destination was Singapore, and the sole purpose of the trip was to complete riding of the entire Malaysian system and get in a piece of the Thai system and set foot in Thailand during a short stint of working in Singapore. The ride was interesting and on time. Their equipment is not much if any narrower than British standard coaches. Ride quality was at times exciting, particularly the northbound which was in an open window coach that was the last car of the train. Just remember, the limits of comfort on rails is well inside the limits of safety.
Whether to take the day train or the night train depends much on which is more important to you, the trip or the destination. If the trip, seeing the country side then go for the day train. Maybe think day train in one direction and night train in the other.
You may already know this, but here it is, anyway. The Thai Railway is one meter track gauge. That does not seem to slow them down much. I believe their speeds are up to 120 kph, maybe a little more. My only ride on the system was from Sungai Kolok to Hat Yai and Hat Yai to Padang Besar, and that was 25 years ago. My origin/destination was Singapore, and the sole purpose of the trip was to complete riding of the entire Malaysian system and get in a piece of the Thai system and set foot in Thailand during a short stint of working in Singapore. The ride was interesting and on time. Their equipment is not much if any narrower than British standard coaches. Ride quality was at times exciting, particularly the northbound which was in an open window coach that was the last car of the train. Just remember, the limits of comfort on rails is well inside the limits of safety.
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Ziv
Conductor
V v, I have taken the night train to Chiang Mai from BKK three times. I did fan the first time in 1998 (3rd class, maybe? Maybe second tier back then but close to third tier.) and it was open bunks with curtains for privacy. Not sure if they still have these cars. It was fun but very basic.
I did AC class the last two times in 2012 and 2018. I did not get a reservation on the two nearly new trainsets, the trainsets were the second tier but still rather nice. This was an outstanding trip! Not true luxury but far from basic. Loved these trips!
I DO NOT recommend the night buses from Bkk to Chiang Mai.
Seat61, as mentioned above, is the very best source of info for train travel just about anywhere though they are best outside the US.
Ziv
Conductor
One more note as I think of stuff. Most of the sleepers in Thailand have bunks on either side of the aisle at night that fold into individual seats that face each other during the day so half the passengers have to sit facing backwards which I do not like. But at night the bunks are surprisingly comfortable and the curtains give a good deal of privacy and security.
There are now 3 levels of Luxe in Thai sleepers, I believe. The older Thai AC sleepers, the newer Chinese AC sleepers and the 2 Japanese AC sleeper trains that are all single cabins. Booking a berth on the Chinese sleepers is tough, they frequently get booked up weeks in advance. I have been supposedly been close but never got a reservation on one of them. Ditto on the two Japanese sleepers.
Seat61 describes them well.
Good luck and happy traveling!
There are now 3 levels of Luxe in Thai sleepers, I believe. The older Thai AC sleepers, the newer Chinese AC sleepers and the 2 Japanese AC sleeper trains that are all single cabins. Booking a berth on the Chinese sleepers is tough, they frequently get booked up weeks in advance. I have been supposedly been close but never got a reservation on one of them. Ditto on the two Japanese sleepers.
Seat61 describes them well.
Good luck and happy traveling!
Thank you Ziv, that is just the information I was looking for. Just one further question on this journey.
3 years ago on an Egypt journey we trained from Cairo to Luxor mainly in daylight and a few days later from Luxor to Aswan also in daylight. For the return from Aswan to Cairo we took the Watania sleeper train with only a couple of hours of daylight during the journey.
This year if everything had gone to plan we were going to repeat that journey except the return from Aswan would have been in 1st class A/C, about the equivalent of the 2+1 Business Class on Amtrak. The reason for no sleeper is we felt we missed so much of what was happeing out the window by travelling at night.
Years ago we travelled on what was known locally as the Jungle Train up the centre of Malaysia, in daytime, for much of that journey there was not much to see except vast forest of Palm and Rubber trees, we would have happily taken a sleeper one way on that if we had been returning the same way.
Is the train to Chiang Mai interesting in the day, interesting enough to take the mainly daylight trains both ways or should we do the traditional thing by taking both the day and sleeper trains? Big question but I do value your views on SE Asia and the seating options are starting to run out.
BTW, have you travelled in S Korea?
Ziv
Conductor
How much you see depends on what time of year you go, December is the worst month for light. You leave Hualamphong between 6pm and 10pm (though the trains may be moving to the new train station in January, maybe) and the first hours ride through Bangkok and its near neighborhoods is worth the fare in itself. But then the sun goes down and you do not see much until early the next morning. But the trains to Chiang Mai do not arrive there until 7am to 11am, so there is a decent amount of sight seeing before you get there. I stood inbetween cars to get decent views in the morning, but it is more rain forest than open vista. But the open vista views are beautiful. I like sleeper trains so I would use a sleeper both ways. The day trip time frames are not that useful for me (though train 7/8 almost works) though they may work for you.
If I could not take a sleeper, I would fly. Do not take the night buses. They are uncomfortable and the BKK to CM night buses are the last bastion of relatively frequent pickpockets on travel in Thailand. Though this is not as bad as it was a few years ago.
I have never been to S Korea, sadly. Love the food!
If I could not take a sleeper, I would fly. Do not take the night buses. They are uncomfortable and the BKK to CM night buses are the last bastion of relatively frequent pickpockets on travel in Thailand. Though this is not as bad as it was a few years ago.
I have never been to S Korea, sadly. Love the food!
George Harris
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jis
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My experience in Malaysia and Thailand was some 16 years ago. I agree.
Back then I actually found some ex-Indian Railways AC First Class Corridor Compartment cars, which was a surprise, and the Conductor and Sleeping Car attendant were third generation of Indian extraction on the KTMB Langkawi Express (Kuala Lumpur - Butterworth - Padang Besar - Hat Yai (Thailand).
acelafan
Conductor
George Harris
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Since that was my route back from Hat Yai, I may have ridden these cars also. On the other hand, I rode in an open berth car. Were these cars built for the Indian narrow gauge lines? My first thought when I read this was Indian broad gauge, if that were the case, this would have been a transition between the world's extremes in railway gauges, from 5'-6" to one meter, but then it seemed on second thought that it would be more reasonable that they were probably built for the Indian narrow gauge.
jis
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Indian Meter Gauge, Indian Railways had a huge Meter Gauge network which is now pretty much gone, all converted to Broad Gauge over 75 years. Actually the Malaysian, Singapore, Thai Railways and also Burmese Railways substantially used Indian Railways Meter Gauge standards on their classic network including the types of coupler and braking system.
During the war the Japanese even managed to connect the Thai and Burmese Railways together via the Three Pagodas Pass Route across the famous Bridge on the River Kwai at Kanchanaburi, using mostly Allied POW labor under atrocious conditions. They faced no equipment incompatibility issues since they were already using the same standards on both railways.
@v.v. if you have an extra day in Bangkok you may wish to consider visiting Kanchanaburi to see the Bridge on the River Kwai and also visit the very well maintained Allied Cemetery. You can take the train upto Nam Tok up the Kwai Gorge which still passes over the bridge hanging by the side of the Gorge. The line beyond Nam Tok to Myanmar through the Pass is out of service and pretty much torn up in many places. It is a nice day trip from Bangkok.
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Sounds like an excellent journey. We're daytime 2nd class AC coach to Chiang Mai and sleeper on the return south.
Thanks
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