Classic route
Royal Railway Northern Line
Phnom Penh → Battambang · Cambodia
Cambodia’s 1932 French rice line, silenced by war and revived in 2018, ambles past Tonle Sap paddies to Battambang’s art-deco station.
The French opened Cambodia’s first railway to Battambang in 1932–33 to move Tonle Sap rice, and after decades of war and abandonment Royal Railway coaxed passenger trains back onto the northern line in 2018. A veteran ex-Thai railcar now trundles out of Phnom Penh’s grand 1932 terminus through an unbroken horizon of paddies and sugar palms. Battambang’s shuttered art-deco station still keeps its original clock.
Along the way
- Phnom Penh’s 1932 station hall
- Tonle Sap floodplain paddies
- Pursat river country
- Moung Ruessei village platforms
- Battambang’s art-deco terminus
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 17056375 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 2 m from it
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Questions and answers
How long is the Royal Railway Northern Line?
The Royal Railway Northern Line runs 273 km from Phnom Penh to Battambang.
How long does the Royal Railway Northern Line take?
The fastest scheduled journey is 6 h 50 min for the 273 km. That is an average of 40 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 60 km/h.
Who runs the Royal Railway Northern Line?
Royal Railway, with veteran ex-Thai Railways diesel railcar.
How old is the Royal Railway Northern Line?
The line has been in service since 1932. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
How often does the Royal Railway Northern Line run?
1× daily each way.
More classic routes
- LNER Azuma
The Flying Scotsman’s route since 1862: and where Mallard set the never-beaten steam record of 203 km/h in 1938.
Wikipedia ↗ - Alfa Pendular
A tilting Pendolino leaning through the curves of the 19th-century Linha do Norte between Portugal’s two great cities.
Wikipedia ↗ - EIP Pendolino
Rides Poland’s 1970s Central Main Line (CMK), engineered decades ahead of its time and now being upgraded to 250 km/h.
Wikipedia ↗ - Railjet
Follows the old Orient Express alignment down the Danube plain: centre to centre faster than any flight.
Wikipedia ↗
More train routes in Cambodia.