Laos - Visit Reports
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.
