Some segments of the railroad between Sisophon and Phnom Penh remain under renovation, and work is expected to be completed later this year, reported South China Morning Post.
Passenger train services between Cambodia’s border town of Poipet and Sisophon, a provincial capital, began on Wednesday (April 4) after a missing 48km stretch of railway was rebuilt, 45 years after it was destroyed in the 1970s during the Cambodian civil war.
Some segments of the railroad between Sisophon and Phnom Penh remain under renovation, and work is expected to be completed later this year, reported South China Morning Post.
There are plans to offer passenger train service eventually from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, although no date has been set. Cambodian minister of transport Sun Chanthol said negotiations with Thailand on a border-related matter have yet to be finalised.
The railway link adds a new transport route to the road-based Southern Economic Corridor, which links Bangkok via Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam.
The project was financed by the Asian Development Bank in 2009 with a US$13 million sum to rebuild 42km segment of the tracks while the Cambodian government rebuilt the remaining 6km.