Thailand is spending billions of baht in double tracking its antiquated metre-gauge railway network, which will not significantly improve train speeds. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s grand master plan is making Thailand’s plan look mediocre by comparison. Here is what Thailand is planning, and what they should do instead.
In 2017, the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP) unveiled a 20-year master plan for rail development. The PDF report can be found here:
Bangkok Post published a summary if you don’t feel like slogging through a 158-page report: OTP unveils 20-year master rail plan.
The plan involves converting the metre-gauge single-track railway network to a double-track network, as well as building standard-gauge high-speed railways.
At the time of the report, the single-track network was 3,763 km, while the double and third-track networks were 280 km. The plan proposes reducing the single-track network to 770 km while increasing the double and third-track networks to 5,625 km. The plan also includes 2,506 km of high-speed railway.
My biggest issue with Thailand’s railway development plan is that they are building this dual-gauge railway system when they should have phased out the metre-gauge railway completely and invested in a modern standard-gauge railway.
I’ve already written about the mixed-gauge mess of Thailand’s railways, so I will be ploughing some old territory here. There have been some recent developments and regional news stories that have got me thinking about Thailand’s rail development plan again.
The Chiang Mai high-speed railway and the Lopburi Bypass
The 20-year master plan includes the Bangkok-Chiang Mai high-speed railway. The Bangkok-Phitsanulok section was proposed to be built in the middle-term phase (between 2022 and 2026), and the Phitsanulok to Chiang Mai section in the long-term phase (from 2027 to 2036).
We are now in the final year of the middle-term phase, and the Chiang Mai high-speed railway is technically still alive, but the probability of it being built is low.
While the prospects of a standard-gauge railway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai are slipping away, the State Railway of Thailand are continuing their plan to double-track the current metre-gauge railway on the Northern Line.
The double tracking of the Lop Buri-Pak Nam Pho section is a 145-kilometre line which includes a 19km elevated section (the longest elevated railway in Thailand). The elevated section bypasses Lopburi, and a new station (Lopburi 2) has been built to serve trains that use the bypass. The old Lopburi station is still used for local trains.
The Lopburi bypass opened in December 2025, and I took the train from Chiang Mai to Lopburi so I could see the bypass for myself.
Lopburi 2 Station is on the elevated section, about 8 km west of Lopburi city. Most of the express trains on the Northern Line use this station, and a free shuttle service operates between Lopburi 2 Station and Lopburi Station.
I took the shuttle to Lopburi Station, and after staying in Lopburi, I took the commuter train from the old Lopburi Station to Bangkok.
The line that goes through Lopburi is still used for some through services, but what surprised me more was that the line is still used for freight. What was the point of building a city bypass if freight trains are still going through the city?
The Lopburi bypass is a substantial amount of concrete that resembles a structure that would serve a high-speed railway, but this is for diesel trains on the metre-gauge railway.
If Thailand were still considering building a high-speed railway to Chiang Mai, it would need to construct another viaduct for the high-speed railway.
Thailand is currently building a high-speed railway from Bangkok to Nong Khai, and it is also double-tracking the existing single-track metre-gauge railway in the same corridor. If the Bangkok-Chiang Mai high-speed railway were ever to be built, then the Northern corridor would also have the same duplication of railways as the Northeastern corridor is currently undergoing.
Vietnam is planning what Thailand should have done
Vietnam’s economy shifted up a gear in 2025, and the rest of Southeast Asia is taking notice. The rise of Vietnam has been acknowledged at the highest level in Thailand, with Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul stating that it is a “nightmare” to see Thailand’s economy lagging behind Vietnam’s.
While reviewing Thailand’s unambitious 20-year master plan, I can’t help but compare it to Vietnam’s ambitious high-speed railway plan. Vietnam plans to build a high-speed railway from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City.
The line will be a standard-gauge double-track railway with a top speed of 350 km/h. It will reduce travel time between the two cities from 35-40 hours to about 5.5 hours, and it will make flying between some cities redundant.
Like Thailand, Vietnam currently has a single-track metre-gauge railway system with trains powered by diesel engines. Vietnam did consider upgrading the metre-gauge line, but a report in 2013 concluded that it would be cheaper to build a new line than to rehabilitate the old line.
To be fair to Thailand, Vietnam is talking big, but they have no track record of building any new national railway lines. The high-speed railway plan has been talked about since 2005, and the last time they tried to rebuild a railway, they gave up halfway through.
Cities in Vietnam have also been slow to build urban railways, with Hanoi breaking the record in Asia for the longest time to complete a first metro line, while Ho Chi Minh City took 12 years to build the first metro line that was supposed to take 6 years.
What Thailand’s 20-year master plan for rail development should have looked like
The current 20-year master plan involves double-tracking the current metre-gauge network while planning to build high-speed railways in the same corridors.
To quote the master plan:
“Development of master plan. It will help to transport passengers and rail freight faster, safer and more punctual. The dual system will reduce delays and uncertainty. Because of waiting It also increases the frequency of service. It is expected that the train will be able to service at an average speed of 90 km / hr. and the car can be served at an average speed of 70 km / hr. The hourly rate of all services is expected to increase to 80%.”
The double tracking will improve service frequencies as trains will no longer have to wait at passing loops for other trains to pass. There will be some speed improvements, but ultimately, it won’t be enough to shift travellers from air travel to train travel.
What the master plan for rail development in Thailand should have done was to systematically phase out the metre gauge railways, one region at a time.
All the lines should be standard-gauge, with a high-speed railway in the Nong Khai-Bangkok and Bangkok-Padang Besar corridor, as well as Bangkok-Chiang Mai. For the other lines, a semi-high-speed railway (160 km/h) like the Laos-China Railway would have been sufficient.
Thailand needs to be more ambitious
Renovating the old system instead of building a modern railway is symbolic of the malaise that Thailand currently finds itself in.
There has been a lot of self-flagellation in the local media over the last year about how Thailand’s economy is adrift. In February 2026, the Financial Times published an article about how Thailand became the ‘sick man’ of Asia, and the title has stuck. That title is unfair (I would say it is the Philippines), but the article got more people talking about the economy.
Articles in the local media continue to compare Thailand’s lagging economy with Vietnam’s rise, but this article’s headline mentions the bigger problem:
Thailand is spooked by Vietnam’s ascent – but what’s scarier is Bangkok’s lack of big ideas
Economic rivalry with your regional neighbours is good, as it keeps your own economy competitive. Thailand’s tourism industry has been coasting on its “Land of Smiles” reputation for decades, so the rise of Vietnam has been a wake-up call. The Bangkok Post ran with the headline, “war room touted amid Vietnam rivalry“, which could have been more tastefully written given the two countries’ history.
Bangkok has been throwing around some big ideas, but those ideas have been like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. Some ideas include casinos, a Disney park, and the Land Bridge project.
Build the high-speed railway instead of the Land Bridge
I have already written about why the Thailand Land Bridge is a bad idea. As an alternative, I would suggest fast-tracking the proposed high-speed railway from Bangkok to Padang Besar.
The Land Bridge is being championed as an economic boost for the south, but a high-speed railway passing through the major cities will be more beneficial. For example, Hat Yai is still recovering from the catastrophic flood of 2025. There was the usual post-disaster talk of how to help Hat Yai recover, but one thing that will not help it recover is the Land Bridge.
If Thailand is prepared to spend one trillion baht on something, then spend it on the high-speed railway.
The current train from Bangkok to Hat Yai Junction takes between 14 and 16 hours to cover the 945 km distance.
When I calculated the travel times of the Vietnam high-speed railway, I used the Beijing-Shanghai HSR as an example. It has an operating speed of 350 km/h, and averaged out, it takes 291.9 km/h.
Using this metric, a high-speed railway at 350 km/h would travel from Bangkok to Hat Yai in about 3 hours and 15 minutes. Not only would this be competitive with air travel, but it would also transform the cities in the path, such as Hua Hin, Chumphon, and Surat Thani. With a high-speed railway to the south, why not make a branch to Phuket instead of the proposed metre-gauge railway?
In the master plan document (3.4.4 Necessity of High-Speed Rail System Development in Thailand), it states:
“The high-speed rail system will bring a new era for travel and new experience to passengers. It will be also an important key to national development as it will decentralize growth and prosperity countrywide.”
A high-speed railway would be more beneficial for the south than the Land Bridge, and it would make train travel fast enough for people to consider switching from air travel.
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I have previously said much the same as you. Personally I was staggered to see the junction where the north bound Lop Buri bypass diverges with a brand new station at which no trains are scheduled to stop and several Klms of unnecessary parallel running and about 5 minutes added to my local train journey as it negotiated its way to the old northern route.
Will be interested to see what others have to say