International News

PHNOM PENH, (APP/AFP) – Cambodia’s sole
passenger train resumed a regular weekend service Saturday 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, told AFP before the train rolled out of the capital Phnom Penh for Sihanoukville, a southwestern seaport.
The Southeast Asian country has more than 600 kilometres (375 miles)
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.
“The train and railway were almost totally destroyed by war more than
40 years ago,” Hun Sen wrote on Facebook — a forum the strongman has embraced with gusto in recent months.
“Because our country is now at peace, we have the opportunity to
rebuild our transport infrastructure,” he added.
The premier, who has been in power for more than three decades, also
published several dozen photos of himself greeting local passengers and
chatting to orange-robed monks in the packed train cars.