Why Myanmar by train is a bumpy bargain ride
Slow, grubby and unreliable, the Southeast Asian country’s trains offer just enough discomfort to make them perfect
The Yangon Circle Train, which winds its way round the suburbs of Myanmar’s former capital, is surely one of the world’s great railway bargains. A ticket for a three-hour journey costs 200 kyat (HK$1.20). The pace is so leisurely, the clackety wheels so hypnotic, the air pouring through the glassless windows (there are shutters for when it rains) so sultry that the carriages have a sign – a boy and a girl mid-clinch with a red line sternly dividing them – that indicates no canoodling is allowed.
Faster, however, is not a hallmark of Myanmar trains, though this, like everything else, is changing. Now that the country’s eagerly arrived – face scrubbed clean(ish) – on the world stage, it’s trying to improve transport infrastructure, both domestic and international.
It’s only ever had one cross-border rail link, the Death Railway to Thailand, built by Japan during the second world war using forced labour and later destroyed. History can run circular, too: in July, Japan donated US$200 million to upgrade the Yangon Circle Train. But, for the moment, train speeds tend more towards the bullock than the bullet.