Bamboo Train (Norry)

Battambang

A Bamboo Train or norry or nori is an improvised rail vehicle from Cambodia. Lonely Planet describes it as "Cambodia's bamboo train". The trains run at speeds of up to 50 km/h (31 mph) on the metre gauge tracks around Battambang and Poipet. A scheduled service run by the Government also operates, but is slower at 30 km/h around 18 mph. The rest of the network, originally built by the French colonial government, is largely abandoned, after the Khmer Rouge regime effectively shut it down. In 2006 the BBC reported that there was only one scheduled service a week and it ran at not much more than walking pace. In October 2017 the bamboo train was no longer available in the original form due to the national effort to rebuild the rail line from the Thai-Cambodia border town Poipet to Phnom Penh. However, the bamboo train is being rebuilt near Wat Banan in order to cater to the local tourism industry. The relocated site is set to open in middle January 2018.