Cambodia
Cambodia covers 181,035 km² of mainland South-East Asia and has about 17.4 million people. Thailand lies to the north-west, Laos to the north and Vietnam to the east, with a coastline on the Gulf of Thailand in the south-west. The country is dominated by a low central plain built around the Tonlé Sap, a lake that reverses the direction of its own outflow each monsoon and swells to several times its dry-season size. Phnom Penh stands where that lake's river meets the Mekong.
Its railway has the most dramatic recent history of any in the region. The French built a line from Phnom Penh to the Thai border between 1930 and 1940, and a southern line to the coast was added in the 1960s; war, neglect and derailment reduced both until every service was suspended by 2009. Rehabilitation followed, funded by the Asian Development Bank and Australia, and the southern line reopened to travellers on 9 April 2016 after fourteen years without a passenger train. The northern line followed in 2018.
Rail journeys in Cambodia
Good to know
Can you get from Phnom Penh to the coast by train?
Yes, and it is the country's one real passenger journey. A train leaves Phnom Penh at 07:00 every day on the Southern Line to Sihanoukville, calling at Takeo, Kep and Kampot and arriving at 13:36; the return working leaves the coast at 14:00. The whole 264 km costs US$12 in the single class the route offers.
Which railway lines carry passengers?
Two. The Southern Line from Phnom Penh to the coast at Sihanoukville, via Kampot, reopened to travellers on 9 April 2016. The Northern Line towards the Thai border reopened in stages — Poipet to Sisophon on 4 April 2018, extended to Battambang later that month. Services have historically run only on certain days rather than daily, so the running days matter as much as the times.
Can you cross into Thailand by train?
Not straightforwardly. The rail link between Poipet and Aranyaprathet was reinstated, but the resumption recorded was for freight, and a through passenger journey from Bangkok to Phnom Penh should not be assumed. Anyone planning a border crossing needs current confirmation rather than a map showing connected track.
Does the train go to Angkor?
No. Siem Reap and the Angkor temples are not on the railway. A 600 mm French line ran from Phnom Krom to Siem Reap in the 1890s but it is long gone, and the surviving network runs elsewhere entirely.
What is the bamboo train?
A norry — a flat bamboo platform on wheels, originally an improvised local transport running on derelict track near Battambang. ⚠️ The original ones were removed when the line was rebuilt and a replacement was constructed for visitors elsewhere nearby, so the one a visitor rides today is not necessarily the one written about in older guidebooks.