(Yicai) July 16 — The effect of the China-Laos Railway on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations connectivity has further expanded after the project linked up with Thailand to build a more convenient and faster channel that connects the three countries.

The Thailand-Laos cross-border passenger train service began trial operation on July 12, aiming to enhance connectivity between the two counties, Xinhua News reported the day after. The route will link up with the China-Laos Railway and officially start operations on July 19.

Trains depart from Bangkok and arrive at Khamsavath station in Laos’ capital Vientiane after about 10 hours. In the future, people will be able to travel between Bangkok and Kunming in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, which will spur trade, logistics, and people connectivity among Thailand, Laos, and China.

There is still a gap between the international freight and passenger trains on the China-Laos Railway and the China-Europe Railway Express, a major international freight train service, Shi Benzhi, professor at Yunnan University’s School of Economics, told Yicai. The connection with Thailand will improve the situation, Shi pointed out.

Laos has a population of just over 7 million people and its infrastructure is outdated, resulting in relatively higher logistics expenditure for transporting freights to other Southeast Asian countries, Shi noted. Thailand’s population totals over 70 million and traveling to other countries in the region, such as Malaysia, is convenient, Shi added.

The connectivity effect brought by the China-Laos Railway has become more prominent, which spurs the growth of relevant industries, including tourism, according to Shi.

The China-Laos Railway, a landmark project of the Belt and Road Initiative, was put into operation on Dec. 3, 2021. Some 8.72 million passenger trips were completed on the line in the first five months of this year, up 17.5 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the National Railway Administration. Up to 10,642 passenger trains ran on the route.

The number of freight trains reached 7,578, with the amount of cargo transported jumping 15.1 percent to about 8.37 million metric tons.

The services network of the China-Laos Railway has extended to 12 Belt and Road Initiative participating countries, including Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar, Yang Mu, director of Yunnan’s commerce department, said on July 12. This has expanded the corresponding freight categories to more than 3,000 from 500, Yang added.

The railways between China, Laos, and Thailand still face some constraints. From the perspective of freight transport, the route is built based on Thailand’s meter-gauge railways and freights need to be reloaded to other trains when they enter or exit the Laos-Thailand borders at checkpoints. Regarding the transport of passengers, travelers cannot directly reach Thailand from China or vice versa, so they must transfer via Laos.

Editor: Martin Kadiev