Laos - Visit Reports
20 February 2025
The main reason for coming to Laos, aside from ticking off the country was to have a spin on the newly built standard gauge line.
We flew up to Vientiane from Bangkok with Air Asia, having sorted an E-visa prior to leaving the UK ($50), Visa on arrival was also an option. Wattay airport is only 15 mins or so by road from central Vientiane and a taxi to the hotel was 150000 kip (about £6).
There are actually two stations serving Vientiane, neither of which are particularly near the town - one is near the Mekong River Friendship Bridge and has metre gauge service across from Thailand. The new station is a good way out of the centre nearer to Don Noun, and Google Maps quoted 45 mins travel time - this turned out to be correct , so allow plenty of time to get there.
We bought tickets in advance via the LCR app, the booking window is only 3 days ahead and trains do seem to sell out, so also bear this in mind if you have a specific date you need to travel on.
As with most Chinese stations, there is a Ticket and ID check to access the building, followed by a security check. Both were quick and efficient, and no sooner had we stepped onto the concourse, they started boarding. Be aware that they close the boarding gates 5 mins before departure for trains on Platform 1 and 7 mins beforehand for trains on Platforms 2 and 3. Our train, K12, was on platform 2 and actually departed at 0840 vice the advertised 0842 published time; it was also load 18 and a good walk up the front to view the loco as the subway stairs came up by coach 9.
The majority of trains on the Vientiane - Boten line are formed of various Chinese high speed karts, but there is one slower hauled train pair K11/K12, and this was our focus.
The electric loco fleet comprises of HXD3C Co-Cos, and these are divided into HXD3C and HXD3CA types. Based on photos and observations the following are known to have been delivered, finding a fleetlist seems to be very difficult:
I've seen photos of both sub-types on the passenger stock, so not sure whether or not they are common user, I did read that the CAs had HEP fitted, yet we had a standard C on our train.
All the electric hauled freights observed had pairs of locos on the front, and we passed one at Vang Vieng on the return journey which had a DF4B on the rear - too dark to get the number though. The freight traffic seems to be predominantly containers, either on flats or stowed inside bogie open wagons, and several stations had the opposite island platform occupied by rakes of them.
About 20 mins North of Vientiane, there is a p-way compound which had 5 DF4Bs, all of which were looking a bit faded & rough round the edges, 9701 was the head of the line.
At Phonhong there is a container terminal adjacent to the station, surprised to see DF4B 9444 at work in there - olive green livery with a China Rail in Circle logo on the front.
Diesel HXN3 7028 was noted on a container train at Vang Vieng, one of two such locos on the railway delivered in 2023.
We got off at Luang Prabang to visit the town there which is on the tourist trail. A shared minivan into town took 30 mins and cost 40000 kip per person. On the return we took a Songthaew pickup taxi which quoted 200000 kip, this was roughly in line with pricing on the Lao version of Uber.
9 March 2025
My report of "high speed" journeys following others on loco hauled K11/2.
Firstly re visas, some airport arrivals in our Group also had $ rejections of notes just showing signs of use, i.e. not torn or written on. Even a Vientiane restaurant thought twice about taking similar notes so if heading this way insist on pristine ones... No surprise I was the only 1 of our 10 Tourist Tour group who arrived in Vientiane overland...
My Tour ended in Luang Prabang 7 days later and I wanted to travel north to the Laos/China border station at Boten on D88, but even though that is a China bound service Ada would not sell me an internal ticket on it as it was still over the 3 days for an internal journey purchase. It then took a few google translate attempts to establish the seat availability on it 7 days ahead was already down to less than 80 seats remaining with some classes sold out.
xx reported using the Seat61 recommended agent 12go who will take your order and payment but on the basis of no guarantee they get what you want, if they don't then it's a refund. My week long organised Tourist trip was actually doing two hops on Laos trains on separate days, so their local Agent's were clearly used to buying tickets as soon as they became available for small groups so I asked for their help. They said tell us what you want when you meet the Group Leader in Laos and no payment until we get you the tickets... [as they can cancel for a full refund if I didn’t pay... and on that subject the LCR App has quite a few posts about not receiving refunds when they have bought App tickets direct].
So my only difficulty was getting them to understand I really did want to go north from Luang Prabang to Boten, to come back south via Luang Prabang to Vientiane two hours later... Another advantage in doing it through them was I could give them option A and B in case no seats in D88...
Our group travel hops were on individual paper tickets with a QR code on them, but for my own journeys, our guide was WhatsApp'd to say they had got them, I gave him cash, he confirmed I had paid and they were immediately sent out as PDF tickets with a QR. They were bought at 07.29 on the day they went on sale, Thursday for Sunday. They were genuinely interested in why I was making such a request and the hassles we have with the 3 day rule and seemed keen to offer their services wider so I will pass their details to Seat61 and he can take it from there if he wants a Laos alternative to 12go.
The LCR App posts a daily seat availability list for three days ahead and K11/2 are by far the best trains for free spaces.
So on the Group/my travel in Laos:-
Tue 4th. We were booked on C92 09.45 Vientiane - Vang Vieng. We went through security as a group, totally painless with nobody's luggage examined in detail and nothing opened although the Tour Guide took away all flammable's such as aerosols & nail scissors etc beforehand. Our guide said a recent tour participant tried to smuggle through a vape, it was found, he was frogmarched away and fined $200.
Once through onto the platform a short time before departure the platform staff let me wander to get the details of the trains only power car at the rear, FXD3-J7001 [so at the Vientiane end] but would not let me go beyond it to get a ¾ front shot. Same on alighting. Train as per previous report left slightly early, arriving 4 early. Full barcode scan ticket check on leaving platform at Vang Vieng.
Passed two freights, haulage unknown, line of diesels on depot as described in previous post but on wrong side to id, and uid oldish looking double cab diesel [assume DF4B] parked behind a wall at Vang Vieng.
Thu 6th: Group booked on C92 10.45 Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang, again going through as a group was painless, as apart from luggage scanner almost pointless security wise as no need to empty pockets/liquids check. Annoyingly we got to the airport, sorry train station [they are huge buildings] in time to see loco hauled K12 arrive/depart north. We were held on the concourse well away from those boarding that train so my photo shows it was a HXD3C but not which one which looks like a Traxx. We were let onto the platform before C92 arrived, but with numerous staff keeping punters way back from the edge parallel with roof columns it was tricky to get a decent phot. Our EMU was FXD3-J7003, this time with the power car at the north end.
Some Germans were sitting in our row/seats so I pointed out in their lingo that their allocated seats were shown on their ticket so move please. They shifted cursing under their breath and were last seen heading back past us with their luggage ages later, it's not rocket science... On arrival at Luang Prabang our guide tried to brief us on the days plan on the platform, but when we were the only ones left we were ushered towards the exit, useful for overall scene phots but I didn't try to go to the ends as staff were posted at both so would not have got beyond the power car or dvt again. What looked like a modernised ChMe lookalike was lurking north of the platforms but no other diesels/electrics seen that day. No ticket grip on leaving station.
Sun 9th: my own journeys so a shared minibus via other Hotel pick-ups to station, 50,000 KIP. I triggered the Security hoop alarm and even then apart from waving the wand over me, I wasn't asked to empty my pockets. So I sat nearby and watched and some people were luggage searched, so the only proper checks were through the scanners. Bizarrely there is a duty-free shop on the concourse but its 168km and two stops from the border so with no segregation of China or Boten bound passengers not sure how that works...
The EMU was FXD3-J7002 with power car at the south end, with electric 7021 and a "ChMe" diesel parked up at Vang Vieng. DF4B 9444 was in the container terminal at Muang Xay. Passed no freights.
Boden was everybody off and out of the station via a full ticket check, those to China having to walk to the north end to go in again through immigration. North and southbounds to/from China are allowed nearly an hour at Boten for this palaver and in the ticket office it displayed available seats for the days trains and D88 I got off towards China was sold out. There were hundreds of seats left on southbound loco hauled K12 but as much as it would have been nice to get a sparky in the book, not for a nearly 4 hours later arrival into Vientiane. Internally Boten station is split ¼, ¾ by a glass partition, the ¼ being domestic so all seats were filled well over an hour before my departure time. No kiosks etc inside, but one small coffee hut right outside, but after the China train left we could wander through to the larger part of the station with kiosks etc.
There are some buildings close to Boten station, plus one large something under construction but nearby it's mainly a huge lorry parking area. Odd track layout as south of the station there are two lengthy single-track viaducts on different levels with one a level dead end headshunt of the yard. Electric 7020 plus 4 more uid, plus blue and white LCR diesel HXn37027, to me a cross breed of VR SR2 cabs and a ribbed sided RENFE 333...
Re the journey, both long Mekong bridges north of Luang Prabang have tunnel mouths very close to either side, and from going underneath one on a river cruise it has not the single span you might expect for such a major river, but has 5 single column supports as there are no large commercial ships with damming in China and although not losing any width, water depth at this time of year can be as low as 2 metres. Fyi from our river cruise we saw some elephants, [one with huge tusks] with their mahouts.
Return south: [Kunming -] Boten 13.27 - Vientiane D87 was a China Railways but identical design FXD3-J0208 [power car south end] but the whole unit was a hideous lime green with yellow and black stripes. Allocated backwards facing seat in coach 1 and managed to get beyond power car for ¾ front shot as no platform end minder...
Vang Vieng: Freight left northbound with 2 uid 70xx electrics plus DF4 9393 shunting at the South end, then 2 x uid 70xx on freight Vientiane North. On arrival back at Vientiane there was no r 28 bus for 4 hours... so a shared van based tuk-tuk direct to Hotels 100,000 KIP. With three of us on it, 4 backpackers piled in and demanded we went first to the Airport. I said no chance we were here first so get yourself another one; they got off...
General observations: Seats in 2nd class in what on board announcements describe as a "high speed EMU" are 3 x 2, some not lining up with windows and with high enough seat backs so non-window seats have an obstructed view. Half of each coach faces in each direction with just one set of double facing bays in the middle. I followed the seat back notice "Please do not sit or put heavy stuff on the [drop down] table, weight limit 25kg"... and didn't need the provided sick bag [although sanitary bag is printed on it, oops], despite 166 kmh max speed displayed internally [on a few occasions]...
LCR are ridiculously over staffed, any entrance/ticket office has a meeter and greeter and on each platform there is a person to process each coach, one at each end of the train, plus one at top and bottom of each escalator if not from the concourse platform. On board there is a travelling cleaner, and official trolley plus a sausage on a stick seller.
The locals are clearly still getting used to train travel, one who ended up sitting next to me did not have a clue where her allocated seat was, and when her station stop announcement was made, clearly panicking she rushed to pick up bags and dashed towards the doors. But the railway is a game changer for locals, there is still no major road all the way from Vientiane to Luang Prabang and our guide says they have no money to build it. From the parts of the existing road we used its not great, and with the hills and rivers it follows it currently takes all day to drive Vientiane to Luang Prabang, or 1¾hrs by train. My Boten - Vientiane single was 663,000 KIP, around £24 for 406km, it's a lot cheaper on K11/2.
As a south north line, most blinds on sunny side of the carriage are pulled down as it was well over 30°, in the north dropping to mid 20's late evening. Air-con on train OK, not too chilly.
