Southern Line (Thailand)


Southern Line is a railway line in Thailand, built and owned by State Railway of Thailand, located in some provinces in Central, Western, and Southern region of Thailand. Its length is 1,144.29 kilometres, making it the longest railway line in Thailand.
The Southern Line is often the target of terrorist attacks of the South Thailand Insurgency especially between the Hat Yai-Sungai Kolok section. All stations and halts between Hat Yai Junction and Sungai Kolok have been fenced off and gates will open and close only during operating hours.

History

In 1894, the Danish engineer Aage Westenholz, uncle of the writer Karen Blixen, a concession to build a route from Bangkok to Phetchaburi. As with other, similar projects of this time to railway construction in Thailand, the start of construction failed due to the difficulty of raising sufficient capital for the project. As a result of this situation, the Thai state decided in 1898 to build the main links of the country by the state itself, he bought back the concession. Other concession requests made by railroad entrepreneurs in the Thai part of the Malay Peninsula were all rejected.
On April 1, 1903, traffic on the first completed section between Bangkok-Thonburi and Phetchaburi was picked up with makeshift carriage material: delivery of a significant portion of the vehicles had been delayed. Only when these had arrived, the official opening on June 19, 1903 by King Chulalongkorn More sections followed successively from 1911 until on July 1, 1918, the traffic was recorded via Padang Besar to Malaysia - initially with two trains per week, which operated with a journey time of 60 hours. An official opening ceremony did not take place - due to the war. In 1922 night traffic and sleeping cars were introduced. Until then, long-distance trips were interrupted for overnight stays. The RSR maintained hotels at major train stations. The travel time from Bangkok to Penang reduced to just over 30 hours.
After the Thai state had bought back the West timber concession, now planned the Royal Railway Department in the Ministry of Public Works under Karl Bethge the route to Phetchaburi. The construction work began in April 1900. In contrast to the rest of the Thai railway network, which was built in standard gauge, the state railway here chose the meter gauge to facilitate a later seamless transition to the also meterspurigen railways in Burma and Malaya. This was all the easier, as the Southern Railway initially could not get any rail connection to the rest of the network, as there was no bridge over the Mae Nam Chao Phraya yet. Therefore, the route was not from the Bangkok Hua Lamphong Central Station, but received their own terminus in Thonburi, the station Thonburi. Its reception building was designed in the style of brick expressionism by the German architect Karl Döhring.
Because of the length of the route, the construction was simultaneously driven by three routes: from Phetchaburi to the south, from the port Songkhla on the east coast and from the port Kantang on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula.
The opening dates are as follows:
The Northern RRD was forced to relinquish the meter gauge line, already built under its direction from Bangkok Thonburi to Phetchaburi to the southern state railway. This was not only technically reasonable, because it provided a uniform administration for each of the two gauges operated by the state, but also a political balancing act of the Thailand, which until 1917 was neutral in the First World War. The northern RRD worked under the German director Karl Bethgen, the southern under the British Henry Gittens, whose countries of origin were now enemies of the war.
After Thailand's entry into the war on the British and French sides on July 22, 1917, the connection of the Malay and the Thai railway network received high priority. Initially, it was planned to establish the connection via the east coast of Malaysia following route. The construction progress of the track in Malaysia was slow. So the authorities decided to establish a connection with the Malay West Railway. This was put into operation in 1918. The route over the eastern border crossing Sungai Kolok could only go into operation on 1 November 1921.
The Thonburi railway station was destroyed in the air raids in 1945. After World War II, General Philbul Songkhram had the reception building reinstated to the original style. In 2003, the terminus of the line westward to the previous station Bangkok Noi, was relocated to use the vacated railway area for the extension of Siriraj Hospital and the Noi station was renamed to Thon Buri railway station once again. The former reception building has not been used then. It should be included in the extension of the hospital.

Songkhla Branch Line

The section south of Songkhla, is 29 km long and was opened on 1 January 1914. Branch station was initially U-Taphao Junction. The location of the branch station was chosen unfavorably: it was located in the flood area of Khlong U-Taphao. Therefore, in 1922 the branch was relocated to the newly built Hat Yai Junction. The branch line was shut down on July 1, 1978.

Hat Chao Samran Railway

South of Phetchaburi consisted of a 12 km long "siding" on the beach of Hat Chao Samran, which served only that 1921-1923 King Vajiravudh and his court could travel by special train directly to the local summer palace. The branch station for this connection was called Phra Ram Ratchaniwet and was abandoned as well as the track to Hat Chao Samran when the king did not go there in summer.

Closed Stations

Main Line

Khiri Rat Nikhom Branch Line

Kantang Branch Line

Padang Besar Branch Line

Services

The line is divided into eight branch lines:
There is another line that was defunct. That line is Songkhla Line, closed in 1978.

Notable stations

The Southern Line begins in Bangkok and heads west towards Nakhon Pathom before splitting into 3 different routes. One route heads west towards Kanchanaburi Province while another heads north towards Suphan Buri. The Southern Line itself continues southbound through Ratchaburi, Phetchaburi, Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, Chumphon, to Surat Thani 678 kilometers away. From Surat Thani, there is a westerly branch towards Khiri Rat Nikhom while the main line continues south to Thung Song Junction in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province where another branch reaches Kantang in Trang Province. Not far further another 35 km-long branch separates off the mainline at Khao Chum Thong Junction. It was opened on 1 October 1914. The main line from Nakhon Si Thammarat continues through Phatthalung before reaching Hat Yai Junction in Songkhla Province. From here, the line branches to connect with the Malaysian railway at Padang Besar and Sungai Kolok passing through Yala Province in the process.