Airport shuttle latest city transport
plans to begin charging for the train service after July 31.
The train’s carriages are clean, with air conditioning, TV and well-stocked bathrooms. Passengers on Tuesday gazed out the windows and took selfies to capture the novelty in perpetuity.
About 10 minutes into the 45-minute ride to the airport, houses began to appear on the side of the track, some of whose roofs almost appeared to touch the moving train. Groups of children could be seen playing, running and jumping just a few metres from the open tracks.
Royal Railway trains that travel between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville have been involved in numerous accidents involving people and vehicles on the tracks – some of them fatal – since that line was opened. Royal Railway officials yesterday declined to take questions from a reporter.
Royal Railway says it plans to receive three new trains from Mexico in June, trains that will have 2,400-horsepower engines and cruising speeds of 80 kilometres per hour. The new trains are set to have WiFi, TVs and a video intercom system, according to a press release.
After 45 minutes, the train slowed to a stop at the airport and the passengers disembarked, standing just a short walk from the departure gates.
An aerial shot of one of the new trains connecting Phnom Penh city centre to the airport, posted to the Ministry of Transport’s Facebook page on Tuesday.
As the passengers filed out, tired-looking travellers rolling luggage began to approach, perhaps unwittingly about to become some of the train’s first customers to ride the shuttle into the city.
“The train makes it very convenient, because you don’t have to worry about traffic,” said Lee Campbell, a US citi- zen who works in Cambodia, after he boarded the carriage headed back into the city. “It takes about 45 minutes from the airport to the city centre. If we took a taxi or tuk-tuk, it could be an hour-plus.”
As for those taxis and tuktuks, feelings about the new locomotive appeared mixed.
A taxi driver who declined to give his name said he would have to work harder to keep customers now that the train was running.
“I will face a new competition, but I hope it will not be a serious issue,” he said yesterday.
Oun Vichet, a tuk-tuk driver who normally works near the airport’s gate, was initially negative about the train open- ing, noting he’d likely lose customers. But, perhaps feeling some of the national pride that the transport minister said he should, he appeared to come around to the change.
“If everyone is happy with this train, I think I should be happy too,” he said. “There are many other places that I can earn money.”