A Change of Guard

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Monday 25 October 2010

Gap to close in Asia rail link [as Cambodian new track opened]



A VITAL part fell into place at the weekend of the rail network that will in five years enable people to take trains from Singapore to Scotland.

This is a 120km section in Cambodia of the Pan-Asian railroad, stretching from the capital, Phnom Penh, to Touk Meas, near the Vietnam border.

Soon the Cambodian branch will run to the Thai border, down to Sihanoukville, the country's main port, and up to the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. Overall, the new rail section will stretch 650km. The Australian government is providing $22 million of the $145m Cambodian part of the project.

Australian logistics giant Toll Holdings has been awarded a 30-year contract to operate and maintain the Cambodian railway system, where recently home-made trucks have been ferrying people and freight along war-ravaged train lines.

Kunio Senga, the Asian Development Bank's Southeast Asia head, said: "We are on the cusp of a contiguous Iron Silk Road stretching from Singapore to Scotland. This possibility has been talked about for decades, but today the dream has finally taken a big step towards becoming reality."

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Related Coverage

* Khmer Rouge killer who turned to God The Australian, 26 Jul 2010
* Justice for the killers but not the victims The Australian, 23 Jul 2010
* Cambodia arrests Thais after bomb attack Adelaide Now, 3 Jul 2010
* BHP probes Asian graft The Australian, 21 Apr 2010
* Cambodia sticks with Thaksin The Australian, 11 Nov 2009

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Once Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam become connected by rail, they will also be linked to the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, and then via Bangkok down the Malay Peninsula to Singapore.

China has already completed its sections of three rail links that extend from Kunming to Vietnam, Laos and Burma.

Four years ago, China signed an agreement with 17 other Asian countries to develop an 81,000km network.

From Kunming, the Iron Silk Road then heads north, reaching Europe through two routes -- one via Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang, and then the central Asian republics, and the other via northeast China -- with a spur route to the Korean peninsula and then Russia.

The boom in railways in Asia is being led by China, which is in the middle of a $300 billion investment in the sector. China already has 7000km of high-speed rail -- with speeds above 200km/h -- and plans to have a network of 16,000km of high-speed tracks in 10 years.

Rail has been the weak link in Asian infrastructure. But as intra-Asian trade grows rapidly, and as fuel costs keep rising, reliable rail freight routes are becoming vital.

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