It is a noisy morning at the Royal Railway Station in Phnom Penh, and the air is filled with the sounds of heavy traffic and strident honking from the surrounding streets. As passengers get off the train they have boarded in the airport, a group of tuk-tuk drivers waits in a corner of the station looking for their next customer.
“It is not easy to get clients at this station. There are still not many people using this train,” a motodop driver, who is hanging around with the group of tuk-tuk drivers, says.
It is no surprise that the number of passengers is still small: the shuttle service, connecting the central railway station to Phnom Penh International Airport, was only launched in April.
The line stretches for nine kilometres and allows people to travel back and forth from the city centre to the airport. It is managed by Royal Railway, the company responsible for the country’s railway network.
In stark contrast to the cacophony of noises outside, a dozen passengers sits quietly in the waiting hall, ready to board the next incoming train. Some are just here out of mere curiosity, intrigued about what it feels like to ride a train.
While the café, the only one in the station, has only a few customers drinking iced drinks out of straws, the ticket counters are deserted. Tickets are, indeed, not needed to board the train: the service has been free for all passengers since its inauguration, and will remain this way until the end of July, according to representatives of the Ministry of Transport.
Near the coffee shop, a few youngsters huddle around one of the modern-looking self-service ticket kiosks, playing around with its digital screen while murmuring in low voices.
According to railway officers, the first train leaves the central railway station at 5:30am every morning, with trains running every 30 minutes until 3am the next morning, when the last one departs.
“There is not many passengers in each train. Only at around 5pm do trains get busy,” a railway officer says.
