From Nikkei Asia

After a 45-year hiatus, Thailand and Cambodia reopened their cross-border railway service with a ceremony Monday in a move expected to provide trucking-dependent manufacturers with a cheaper, high-volume logistics option.

With the rail service connecting the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet with Poipet in Cambodia, train passengers can now travel between the capitals of Bangkok and Phnom Penh.

The rail service had been shut down since 1974 due to tensions between the two neighboring countries over the border and other issues. The long suspension was lifted after a 2015 agreement between Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen to relink the countries by rail to promote economic activities in the region and improve relations.

he reconnection is expected to boost businesses in Thailand -- a hub of automakers, electric machinery builders and other manufacturers -- which are struggling with surging wages. Seeking cheaper workers, these companies are increasingly shifting labor-intensive production processes to Cambodia, including an industry park in Poipet, and bringing semi-finished products back to Thailand for final assembly. The problem has been the high cost of logistics because trucking was the only option.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Thai-Cambodia-railway-resumes-after-45-years-connecting-business

On 6/10/2021 at 7:26 PM, reader said:

 

With the rail service connecting the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet with Poipet in Cambodia, train passengers can now travel between the capitals of Bangkok and Phnom Penh.

 

I wonder how long it would take but my guess is about 12 hours as neither Thai nor Cambodian trains are exactly Shinkasens  yet but certainly I'd give it a try as I prefer trains to buses .

Would be a nice service if the border formalities could be done on the train!

Highly doubt if this is accurate-as the long stretch in Camb. needs an urgent complete renovation. They tried out a few weekends with running a train again there and it simply would not work yet. Buses run about twice as fast........

In fact I think that the across Lao raillink currently being built by the Chinese (who else?) will be online sooner-within 2 yrs from now

Also from the usual and very well informed sources on railwayfora there is not a sign about this-like forum railways skyscrapercity

What DID happen-but already some 2 yrs ago now, is that the Thai line was renovated from its last stop in TH-Aran(yaprathet) till border point-from where due to national legal reasons the Khmer-in fact a hired australian company-has to take over.

And NO-one can be as sure as 111%-you, if it finally gets going-will have to step out-probably twice-and do the burocrazyness-as has alwys been the case with far more cooperating Thai_Malay side and more recent the Thai-Laos over the bridge shuttle.

Oh-and for the best uptodate Khmer gay overviews: der Christian, well known for his blog is there since 1/1 and reports extensivily. christianpfc.blogspot.com