Cambodian train on track after long hiatus

All aboard: Passengers boarding the train at the Phnom Penh train station as the railway service resumes after a 40-year suspension. — AFP

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s sole passenger train resumed a regular weekend service after being suspended for years, with Prime Minister Hun Sen climbing aboard to inaugurate the first trip. “Today is a very important day for the railway,” John Guiry, Royal Railway Cambodia’s CEO, said before the train rolled out of the capital Phnom Penh for Sihanoukville, a southwestern seaport.

The Southeast Asian country has more than 600km of track extending from its northern border with Thailand down to the southern coast, but decades of war and neglect have left vast stretches of the network damaged.