Kunming-Singapore railway

The Kunming-Singapore railway, also known as Pan-Asia railway network, is a network of railways being planned or under construction, that will connect China, Southeast Asia and Singapore. The concept originated with British and French imperialists, who sought to link the railways they had in southwest China, Indochina and Malaya, but international conflicts in the 20th century kept regional railways fragmented. The idea was revived in October 2006 when 18 Asia and European countries signed the Trans-Asian railway network agreement, which designates the Kunming-Singapore railways as one of the planned trans-Asian railways.

The proposed network consists of the three routes from Kunming to Bangkok, the eastern route via Vietnam and Cambodia, the central route via Laos and the western route via Myanmar. The southern half of the route from Bangkok to Singapore has long been operational, but the high-speed line has been proposed.

History
The British and French Empires first proposed building a railway from Kunming to Singapore in 1900 as Russia was completing the Trans-Siberian railway. From 1904 to 1910, the French built the Yunnan–Vietnam railway, to connect Kunming with Hanoi and Haiphong in French Tonkin, now northern Vietnam.

In 1918, the southern line of the Thailand railway system was connected with British Malaya's west coast line, completing a metre gauge rail link from Bangkok to Singapore. In the late-1930s, the British began to build the Yunnan–Burma railway but abandoned the effort in 1941 with the outbreak of World War II.

In 1936, the Vietnam's main railway, from Hanoi to Saigon was completed. This French-built system was (and still is) metre-gauge.

In 1942, the railways of Thailand and Cambodia were connected linking Bangkok and Phnom Penh, but this trans-border connection has long since fallen into disuse. The Japanese Empire built the infamous Thailand–Burma railway using prisoners of war to connect Bangkok and Yangon, but the entire line never entered commercial operation and is now partially submerged by the reservoir behind the Vajiralongkorn Dam.

A continuous metre-gauge rail line from Kunming to Singapore via Hanoi, Saigon, Phnom Penh, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur was not realized as the French built the "missing link" between Phnom Penh and Saigon, choosing to build a highway instead.

21st century revival
In 2000, ASEAN proposed completing the Kunming to Singapore railway, via Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Bangkok. This 5,500 km (3,400 mi) route is now known as the eastern route. In 2004, ASEAN and China proposed the shorter western route, which instead of running east through Vietnam and Cambodia, would go west from Kunming to Myanmar and then to Bangkok. In 2007 ASEAN and China proposed building three routes, the Eastern, Western and a central route via Laos.