(Yicai) July 16 -- The linkage effects on China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations of the China-Laos Railway, a landmark project in the Belt and Road Initiative, has deepened with Thailand's inclusion, creating a more convenient and faster rail corridor between the three nations.

The Thailand-Laos cross-border passenger train service began trial operation on July 12, aiming to more closely connect the two counties, Xinhua News Agency reported the day after. The route will link up with the China-Laos Railway and officially start operating on July 19.

Trains depart from Bangkok and arrive at Khamsavath station in the Laotian capital of Vientiane after about 10 hours. In the future, people will be able to travel between Bangkok and Kunming in China's southwestern Yunnan province, which will spur trade, logistics, and people exchanges among the three countries. 

There is still a gap between the international freight and passenger trains on the China-Laos Railway and the China-Europe Railway Express, a major international freight train service, Shi Benzhi, a professor at Yunnan University's School of Economics, told Yicai. The link with Thailand will improve the situation, Shi pointed out.

Laos has a population of just over seven million people and its infrastructure is outdated, resulting in relatively higher logistics costs for moving freight to other Southeast Asian countries, Shi noted. Thailand's population totals over 70 million and traveling to other countries in the region, such as Malaysia, is convenient, Shi added.

The connectivity effect brought about by the China-Laos Railway has become more obvious, which driving the growth of related economic sectors such as tourism, according to Shi.

The China-Laos Railway was put into operation in December 2021. The line handled 8.72 million passenger journeys in the first five months of this year, up 17.5 percent on a year ago, according to data from the National Railway Administration. Up to 10,642 passenger trains ran on the route.

The number of freight trains reached 7,578, with the amount of cargo transported jumping 15.1 percent to about 8.37 million metric tons.

The services network of the China-Laos Railway has extended to 12 countries taking part in the BRI, including Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar, Yang Mu, director of Yunnan's commerce department, said on July 12. This has expanded the corresponding freight categories to more than 3,000 from 500, Yang added.

The railroads between China, Laos, and Thailand still face some constraints. From the perspective of freight transport, the route is built based on Thailand's meter-gauge railroads and freight needs to be reloaded to other trains at Laos-Thailand border checkpoints, while travelers cannot directly reach Thailand from China or vice versa. They must transfer via Laos. 

Editor: Martin Kadiev