Hua Lumphong Station

While testing WindowSeater, we came to know Hua Lumphong Station well. It’s a magical place. Its a Miyasaki-esque dreamscape, perhaps sitting in a kink in our space-time continuum, and probably populated by spirits and ghosts. It doesn’t really fit in modern day Bangkok. Its an otherworldly stop that, for now, us rail travellers in Thailand often have little choice but to make.

I spent many hours there. Learnt a fair bit about it. And had some odd experiences there. Thought I might share them with you.

Firstly, some history

The Thai railway network was inaugurated at the site of Hua Lumphong in 1897, but at the time it was just a assembly and maintenance centre for the rolling stock. The grand building that now stands was completed 19 years later after 6 years of construction. The architecture is Italian — attributed to Turin-born Mario Tamango and Annibale Rigotti, a collaboration also responsible for the majestic Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall in the Dusit Palace complex that you will pass (but unfortunately not see) a little down the line after you jump onboard. The building is of a neo-renaissance style — with a typically lofty and triumphant hall, and great natural light thanks to ample use of glass that was, at the times, considered state-of-the-art and architecturally adventurous.

A portrait of the moustachioed founder of Thailand’s railway system greets you as you pass through to the train platforms. The story goes that as an infant in 1855, King Chulalongkorn was presented with a model train set from an envoy of Britain’s Queen Victoria. She was trying to convince Chulalongkorn’s father — King Mongkut — to link her colonies in British India and Malaya by rail. Although Mongkut declined to do as Victoria wished, a seed was planted in the mind of the young Chulalongkorn, who turned into a true railfan.

Upon assuming the throne 13 years later, he began surveying Thailand’s first rail link. It wasn’t to be to Britain’s bordering colonies, but instead north through Siam’s agricultural heartland to its second city, Chiangmai. Using this modern technology, Chulalongkorn cut the journey time to the restive north and south from weeks to days, thereby dramatically increasing his ability to project the monarchy’s power and bring their economies into the global trade links he and his predecessors had established. He was one of Thailand’s great modernisers and nation-builders, and is today considered to be among the greatest King’s in Thailand’s long history.

Today, Hua Lumphong serves over 60,000 passengers daily. It is a terminus for every line in State Railway of Thailand network, taking you north to Chiangmai, Northeast to Laos, East to Cambodia, West toward Myanmar, and South to Malaysia. Hua Lumphong is also, usually, the terminus of the Eastern and Oriental Express luxury train that connects all the way down to Singapore via the Ithsmus of Kra. But it won’t be the railhead for much longer.

Hua Lumphong was built at the edge of a city that has long since swallowed it. The line that runs up the spine of Bangkok is now more of a hinderance. Bang Sue Junction — about 8 kilometres to the North— is being developed into the central transport hub for Bangkok, connecting the state railways with the road and metro networks. Hua Lumphong station will be repurposed, and it will stop being the weird and wonderful place it is today.

Departures hall

One time we were doing a test on the weekend train out to Nam Tok on the Death Railway, which required me to get to Hua Lumphong at a groggy 5am. I was expecting the place to be eerily quiet, with perhaps a few cleaners making echoes through cool air.

Nope. The place was packed. As I approached in the dark early morning, Hua Lumphong gleamed with its halogen tubes, and it looked as though a battle had just taken place. Bodies lay askew around its entrances, occasionally writhing. People were trying to sleep. It seems that Hua Lumphong is a safe place to let your guard down through the back of the clock in Bangkok. No doubt a haven for the homeless, but not everyone was looking ragged. I recall one cluster of children in matching school uniforms trying to sleep on the cement floor — perhaps they came in from the country the night before to be on time for school in the morning. As you step over and past limbs through the entrance, the football field-sized hall was filled with people sitting and waiting, or laying and sleeping. It was like a high-school gymnasium after natural disaster. But people were at ease — it was a place they could be kept safe by the railway police and not be shoed off. They were just waiting for a train like me.

In the evening, when I returned from Nam Tok, the crowd had cleared and was replaced by people in motion. Some heavy-laden tourists walking with hesitation and confusion, but mostly commuters briskly crisscrossing the hall until at the strike of 6pm a voice came over the loudspeaker and they all stopped in their tracks. It was like a flashmob. The tourists weren’t in on it. Then the Thai national anthem played. Many turned to face the portrait of King Chulalongkorn. When the anthem finished, they resumed their trajectories and velocities without a word uttered.

Railway offices

I had the bright idea of advertising WindowSeater with banner ads in the station and on trains. I asked at the ticket counter who I should talk to about it. The message was communicated well enough, but the look that was returned was as though I had three heads and no clothes on. Over the space of 3 or 4 hours, we were somebody else’s problem for about 6 or so somebodies. From the main entrance, we were directed to an office beside the platforms, then for a 15 minute walk to the State Railways of Thailand head offices.

The head office was a picture of public service. Friendly people working diligently at not much. We arrived at the beginning of lunchtime. They were just heading out and would be back in an hour. An hour and a half for the higher ups. That gave us time to admire the buildings. It felt like school, with high-ceilinged rooms laid out along long cool hallways and corridors around a central courtyard. The grounds were verdant with big lush trees, and colourfully ornamented with places of Buddhist and royal worship.

In front of the building was a fenced off area with assorted derailed rolling stock. One windowless carriage was painted grey, with a turrent and a mounted 50-cal riffle poking through it. I doubt Thailand ever had much need for such a thing. Next to that was the opposite — a passenger carriage painted with rainbows and animals with a little garden around it and a brick pathway going up to its steps. It was a library. The project was initiated in 1999 by the Railway Police. Filled with books, toys, and computers, it offers basic education services and distraction to homeless children living in the station. A commendable bid to reduce crime and child exploitation, and to give at-risk children an opportunity to learn to read and write and practice better health. There is another at Bang Sue.

The public servants returned as a team with grins having perhaps just received the punchline in time to get back to work. The smiles were directed to us as they entered, and seeing as everyone hadn’t sat down yet, the whole office was discussing who the best somebody else was and whether they were working today. A unanimous decision was made, and an escort was assigned to advance us to the final level. The Acting Deputy Head of Completely Unheard-of Customer Queries. After a few minutes of debate between our escort and the ADHCUCQ, we were directed to a person back at the station that had sent us to the head office in bewilderment in the first place. I guess I wasn’t going to advertise. It was impossible to be angry or frustrated with such happy and friendly people.

Before meeting people at the head office I had wondered why all the stations I passed on my Thai rail journeys — even the most tiny and out of the way — were so lovingly maincured, maintained, and decorated. Afterwards, it was easy to see why.

Maintenance

One day we did a quick trip from Hua Lumphong to Bang Sue and back just to check a feature on the WindowSeater app. The train back was completely empty apart from us. As the train slowed to approach Hua Lumphong, the train suddenly stopped a kilometer short of its advertised destination. We waited. The fans turned off. After a while I realised that I could see right down to the front of the train and out into daylight — the engine at the front had disappeared. Uh, guys!?

We jumped down the surprising height that is left sans platform. Walking over the kilometer-long delta of criss-crossing tracks seemed treacherous, and there were trains in the way if we walked sideways. Sideways it was though. We were heading towards a redbrick building, jumping up and down onto and off carriages of varied stationary trains. All empty. We Then we jumped down off the last train into a substance that had the qualities of both oil and dust. Oil-dust? We found the only entrance to the building that seemed plausible, and began dipping and zagging between oil-dust-covered parts and machines and behelmeted people tinkering and welding or having a smoke and a chat. Unlike the workers at the head office, these workers were unfazed and completely uninterested by our sudden presence and our lack of safety equipment. It was like we were invisible. Seeing the carriages off their axels and engines out of their mounts was interesting, so I slowed down and gandered. We exited into blinding daylight. My shoes were never the same.

Some tips:

The station is connected to Bangkok’s underground train — The MRT — which then connects to the the overground BTS Skytrain lines, and the Airport link to Suvarnabumi Airport. You can take SRT trains up to Don Mueang Airport too.

Tickets can be bought at a tourist service counter in the Northwestern corner of the entrance hall. Its staff are a bit brusk, but very helpful, and tickets are the same price as the ticketing counters.

Some train journeys to the West and South depart instead from Thonburi Station, which is across the river to the West from here. If you are heading that way, be sure to check your tickets for the departure station. It can be tricky to get there, so if you need to get to Thonburi, leave plenty of time to either take a taxi, or inquire about how to get there by train.

On certain days (Tuesdays if I recall correctly) you can get your hair cut for free on the platform to the far left hand side as you pass through to the platforms. Its put on by the local vocational training school and its hairdressing students. Some spoke English, and were relieved to learn that I only wanted a #1 buzz cut.

One of the cheapest eats of decent Thai food can be found on the ground floor of the main entrance hall of Hua Lumphong. Its on the right of the hall as you’re facing the portrait of the King. You have to buy coupons first, which are converted into food at the food stands.

If you’re there early and are after a coffee, a decent one can be obtained for about 80THB from a shop hidden on the second floor on the left as you come in, on the balcony overlooking the main hallway. There’s also a better chance of finding a seat, and its a nice vantage to take it all in.