Thailand has 4,044 kilometres of railway tracks passing through 47 out of 77 provinces. There are four main lines: Northern Line (781 km), which terminates in Chiang Mai, the Northeastern Line (1,094 km), which terminates in Ubon Ratchathani and Nong Khai provinces, the Eastern Line (534 km), which terminates at the Cambodian border in Sa Kaeo Province, and the Southern Line (1,570 km), which terminates at the Malaysian border in Songkhla and Narathiwat provinces. There are also a number of branch lines of interest including one that goes to Pattaya and another along the Death Railway.

ALL THE LINES CHALLENGE

I know that there are some European rail fans that like to do the All the Lines Challenge for every country that they visit. These are my notes for helping you accomplish this. I will also add notes for people who want to do the All the Stations Challenge. For this, you don’t need to get on and off at every station, but you do need to be on a local train that stops at every station.

THE NORTHERN LINE

The main line heading to Chiang Mai has one branch line at the moment, to Sawankhalok in Sukhothai Province. A branch line from Den Chai to Chiang Rai Province is under construction.

1. SAWANKHALOK BRANCH LINE (sa-wan-ka-lok) – This line is only 29 kilometres long and goes from Ban Dara Junction on the Northern Line to Sawankhalok. There are only two stations on this line, Khlong Maphlap and Sawankhalok. At the moment, there are only two trains a day on this line. Local No. 405 goes from Sila At at 10:00 a.m. and arrives in Sawankhalok one hour later. The return train is Local No. 406 that leaves Sawankhalok at 11:35 a.m. So, this is easy to do in one day. If you need somewhere to stay overnight on the main line, I suggest Uttaradit as there isn’t much happening in Sila At.

THE NORTHEASTERN LINE

The main line in the northeast goes to Ubon Ratchathani. They then built a branch line from Thanon Chira Junction (just after Nakhon Ratchasima Station), to Nong Khai on the border with Laos. In the 1950’s, it was decided that there was too much of a bottleneck in Nakhon Ratchasima, and so a bypass route was built at Kaeng Khoi Junction for trains going between Bangkok and Nong Khai.

1. NONG KHAI BRANCH LINE (nong kai) – This is an easy branch line for you to do. Just catch any Nong Khai bound train from Bangkok. However, to say you have done the complete line, you need to take the shuttle train from Nong Khai Station across the Friendship Bridge and then the border to Thanaleng Station in Laos. There are two trains a day that leave at 7:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.
2. BUA YAI BRANCH LINE (boo-er yai) – This line is 221 kilometres long and goes from Kaeng Khoi Junction to Bua Yai Junction. All the trains between Bangkok and Nong Khai go this way. However, if you are also doing the All The Stations Challenge, you need to change to a local train at Kaeng Khoi Junction. There are two trains each way. Ordinary No. 433 leaves at 5:30 a.m. and Ordinary No. 439 leaves at 11:45 a.m.
3. THANON CHIRA JUNCTION TO BUA YAI JUNCTION (ta-non ji-ra) – After they had opened the bypass route to Bua Yai Junction, not many trains now went along this section. So, in order to complete the All the Lines Challenge, you need to take a local train here. If you want an idea on how to do a two-day loop that includes both the Bua Yai branch line and this section, then click here.

THE EASTERN LINE