BANGKOK, Thailand — Train buffs of the world, get ready for some extraordinary rides: Seoul to Moscow, for example, or tropical Singapore to the highlands of southern China.
The Associated Press reports that plans are also chugging along for high-speed trains in South Korea (news – web sites) and China, lines through onetime war zones and within rail-less Laos, even an Asia-Europe passage under the Bosporus Straits.
“Past cooperation has been slow, but now there is more political will and interest,” Barry Cable, a United Nations (news – web sites) transportation expert, says of a decades-old project to link the farthest corners of Asia with Europe while developing regional rail networks.
Regardless of political backing, experts say train transport in Asia will inevitably boom this century since roads simply won’t be able to carry the mounting traffic. Tourism promoters and environmentalists are likewise enthusiastic.
“The train projects will open up many tourism opportunities. They will certainly attract new business for the whole region,” says Luzi Matzig of Asian Trails, a Bangkok-based tourist agency that has pioneered travel to remoter areas of Southeast Asia.
When complete, the Trans-Asian Railway, or TAR, will encompass two major east-west flows: A northern corridor will link the Korean peninsula to Moscow and the eastern gates of Europe. A southern one is to run from Bangladesh through the Indian subcontinent, Iran and on to Istanbul. A tunnel under the Bosporus Straits would seal the Asia-Europe connection. Both these flows would be coupled to Southeast Asia.
A major regional initiative, first proposed by Malaysia in 1995, calls for a 5,382-kilometer (3,344-mile) route from Singapore to Kunming, the capital of China’s southernmost province of Yunnan. Spur lines to Myanmar and within Laos, which does not yet have a single meter (yard) of track, would also be part of the project, spearheaded by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The Singapore-to-Kunming project, expected to move forward at the Nov. 3-5 summit of ASEAN leaders in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is viewed as a vehicle to better bind the economies of the region and provide southern China with easier access to the sea and to ASEAN markets.
ASEAN members include Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore and the Philippines.
Honorio R. Vitasa of the ASEAN Secretariat says the major challenge facing the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link, which may take a decade to complete, is attracting some US$2.5 billion in needed funds.
Rickety old tracks require rehabilitation and 431 kilometers (267 miles) of missing links in Cambodia will have to be filled in before a Singapore-Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok-Phnom Penh-Ho Chi Minh City-Hanoi-Kunming journey is possible.
North Korea (news – web sites) and Myanmar are key barriers to the TAR dream, first proposed in 1960 and now supported by 24 nations.
But in September, the two Koreas agreed to restore the 24-kilometer (15-mile) rail link through the Demilitarized Zone between the onetime arch-enemies, and preliminary work has already begun. The last train ran through the area at the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950.
“We’re very optimistic and enthusiastic. There will be some hiccups, but this time it seems there is a real commitment to reconnection,” said Cable, an official of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
Rail passage through the DMZ would benefit both Koreas and the Russian Federation, which now relies on sea routes to ship the products of its mines to South Korea’s industries.
There are, however, no signs of progress on a railway through Myanmar, crucial to the southern Asia corridor that would link the region to Europe. The military-run nation, also called Burma and shunned by many Western countries, is plagued by economic problems and insurgencies, some along the proposed railway route.
The focus now, Cable said, is on moving freight in containers along the northern corridor, and demonstration runs are being planned. Freight on rails can travel from northern Asia to Europe in 10 days, as opposed to 25 days by sea. Links from the northern corridor to the landlocked countries of Central Asia will be a later step.
The United Nations says that over the past half-decade, expanded roadways accounted for most of the growth in Asian land transport. But railways remained vital.
Asian trains carry about 18 billion passengers and 3.6 billion tons of freight a year over 350,000 kilometers (217,500 miles) of track. They employ some 7 million people.
Pierre Chartier, another U.N. expert, says Asian planners are becoming more aware of “congestion costs” and environmental harm from road travel. Rail offers greater safety, lower fuel consumption and less pollution.
Some US$73 billion will be spent in Asia on rail projects between 2001 and 2006, with China accounting for US$45 billion, according to the United Nations.
The Chinese are planning to bring high-speed trains into service, while South Korea has already begun work on a link between Seoul and the port of Busan that will see trains whiz along at 300 kph (186 mph). The first phase is due for completion in 2004.