There has been interest from the Korea Rail Network Authority, and Japan has proposed a high-speed railway on the line. There have been numerous announcements over the years about the plans to start this project. The railway would cross paths with the northern line at Nakhon Sawan, and the Northeastern Line at Ban Phai in Khon Kaen Province. A railway across Thailand would go a long way towards decentralising Bangkok-centric Thailand. There is no east-west rail in North, Central, and Eastern (Isan) Thailand. Even if Myanmar and Laos don’t build their section for years, this line would still be of great benefit to Thailand if they went ahead with it. The Thailand section forms the bulk of the line, traversing an 800km-long route from Maesot to Mukdahan. With the new railway connecting to the existing railway at Mawlamyine, passengers could then travel from Bangkok to Yangon by train Thailand There are currently no railways connecting Myanmar to Thailand, which is one of the many missing links of Southeast Asia railways. Mawlamyine as a port has competition from the proposed Dawei port and Special Economic Zone, which is closer to Bangkok. The current port at Mawlamyine is not suitable for large container ships, so there is a proposed new deep-sea port at Kalagauk Island, about 130 km south of Mawlamyine.įor businesses in Thailand shipping cargo to the west, they could send containers here instead of Bangkok, saving the journey around the Malay Peninsula. There were sea connections to Penang, Singapore, Calcutta, Bombay, and London. It was an important river port in colonial times, with timber being the major export. Moulmein (as Mawlamyine was then known) was the first capital of British Burma between 18. The route from Mawlamyine to Myawaddy on the Thai border is about 120 km. Mawlamyine is the first (or last) station of the East-West Economic Corridor. Here is the status of the railways of the four countries that the railway passes through. If the railways are built it will transform cargo and passenger transport in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Unfortunately, not a single kilometre of new railway has been added. Work on the EWEC has focused on improving highways, building new bridges, and streamlining cross-border transport agreements. The railway would then serve cargo and passenger trains. The EWEC also calls for the development of a railway that would connect the two ports. The road route connects the port cities of Mawlamyine in the west, to Da Nang in the east. The corridor was envisaged as a land bridge connecting the Indian and Pacific Oceans, saving the sea route via the Malacca Strait. The East-West Economic Corridor is an economic development program spanning across mainland Southeast Asia, covering Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, with Cambodia also included.

Myanmar sea port map