Train Through Bangkok Market Video

A widely distributed video that shows a train apparently running through the middle of a busy Bangkok market has generated a lot of online discussion and debate.

Train Runs Through Bangkok Market - Watch more free videos

The video shows that the market is actually located right on the train line. Apparently, market vendors remove their wares and stalls to make way for each passing train and then rapidly re-establish themselves after it has passed. The area is so cramped and packed with goods and equipment that the train carriages actually pass over the top of produce left on the outside of the tracks. Those of us who live in increasingly health and safety conscious westernized nations may find such a set up quite incredible. Some have even suggested that the video has been manipulated in some way.

However, there is no reason to doubt the veracity of the video. Other photographs online confirm that such markets do exist. The market shown in the video is one located at Maeklong (Maekrong) a town near Bangkok. A news photo of the market from 2001 has the following caption:

Thai vegetable market vendors pull back temporary shades and their produce off a railway track to allow a cross-country train to pass through the middle of the town of Maekrong, 60 kilometers west of Bangkok, April 5, 2001. The bustling market, in the middle of the town, has to scramble from the tracks eight times a day as trains pass, a scene repeated in other rural centers and some city slums across Thailand every day.

More details and photographs of the market are included in a 2006 entry on the Thailand Travel Blogs website. The blog writer, Richard Barrow, notes:

The journey was over very quickly and we soon entered a built up area. The outskirts of Maeklong. I knew that during the last 100 metres or so the train would pass through a market. Literally. I know it sounds strange but this was my planned highlight of the trip. I wanted to get pictures of the market stallholders pulling back their produce as we passed through the market. It had always intrigued me and I wanted to come and see for myself. For this event, I made sure I was at the front of the train. The door to the driver’s cabin was open and I asked him if it was OK if I took some pictures. He said “no problem”. As we approached a corner he sounded his whistle a number of times. Then, as we rounded the corner we were presented with the image in the above pictures. I thought I would see people rushing to grab their vegetables before it was run over by the train. But, they knew the train was coming and everything had been cleared!

Richard also captured video footage of the markets from the back of the train.

And an article about the markets published on the Rex Features website notes that, in spite of regular interruptions by passing trains, the market works very well and only two people have died during the last twenty years.

More photographs of the market are available via the links below:

References:
NEWS PHOTOS from THAILAND - News Archives
Thailand Travel Blogs - Market on the Railway Tracks
Market Train in Maeklong
THAI MARKET HOLDERS OFF THE RAILS

Last updated: 25th October 2007
First published: 25th October 2007

Write-up by Brett M. Christensen