Hua Lamphong Station is hard to forget – a grand Renaissance style arch stretches across the front entrance. The platforms are covered with a massive Paddington-like canopy and the booking halls are decorated with stained glass windows. Situated in the midst of bustling Bangkok, a sprawling Asian metropolis, Hua Lamphong feels as if it has been torn up from Italy and plonked in an acre of free space.

It’s from here that the train to Ayutthaya departs on its 70 kilometer journey through the Bangkokian suburbs and across the Thai countryside to the ancient capital city. Catching the train itself is not an easy task – the station is crowded with Thai travelers and tourists alike, and like many tourist hotspots, the people dressed in uniforms who approach you to offer advice on your trip do not necessarily have your best interests at heart. That said, Thailand’s people are generally extremely friendly and helpful, and we quickly found a departing train to the north – albeit a third class commuter service. And so with the deafening sound of a horn and a loud groaning noise the train pulled out of Hua Lamphong and we departed on our course.
The train travelled a few hundred metres through the city before it ground to a halt. And that is where Bangkok’s railways are unique in the world; no other train gets caught in the rush hour traffic. The main line of the Thai State Railway, built in 1892, was constructed long before the rise of the automobile in Thailand, and it has many level crossings along major roads… probably not a great idea in a city renowned for its chronic congestion problems. When the cars become stagnant on the road they are left sitting on the railway tracks, and the train has to wait patiently for the traffic jam to clear each time it crosses.

The stifling Bangkok heat attacks the idle train carriages. The average daily temperature of the city is 300C throughout most of the year, yet only the more modern first and second class trains are fitted with air conditioning; the third class trains have only a simple revolving fan. As it happened, the one above us had broken down, so there was nothing other than bottled water to hold the oppressive heat back.

Once the train escaped from the city, the speed picked up. Outside the window the city gradually faded away and the countryside began to rush past, mostly paddy fields, with the occasional slum-like shanty town interceding. Rice is Thailand’s biggest product; it exports 6.5 million tons of the stuff annually, making it the world’s largest exporter. Any trip through rural Thailand is pretty much guaranteed to pass dozens more of similar fields. As for the slums – an impressive transformation is starting to take place. While there are still many shacks roughly made of corrugated iron and chunks of old wood pulled together, raised above the ground to protect from flooding, these are gradually disappearing. Interspersing these settlements huddle groups of new brick houses and smart wooden constructions, recently built, as the Thai working people begin to earn enough money to rebuild their homes. Even the poorest of slums in Bangkok all have satellite TV aerials placed haphazardly on their roofs, and no matter where they are from, the vast majority of people in the city seem to own a Smartphone – even if their house consists of little more than wood. Across the countryside too, people are evidently gaining access to new luxury goods they would never have been able to get their hands on just years ago. While Thailand does have the same problems with corruption and uneven spread of wealth that dogs many developing countries, it is clear that the living standard of normal people is improving at a rapid rate.

And now outside the window a vast golf course passes by, lush green spaces and lazy palms fill the landscape, with the occasional golfer strolling along happily. In contrast to the majority of the people in the country, the Thai upper class and emerging middle class live a life of comfort and Western-style luxury as their country takes leaps and bounds towards the status of becoming a ‘developed nation’ on the United Nation’s scale.

As our journey reached its final leg, we passed under a half-built motorway bridge, part of a new dual-carriageway between Ayutthaya and the capital. Across the whole of the country, massive new construction projects such as this one are employing more and more people as the government flexes its muscles and embarks on more ambitious goals. It is not just the roads that are getting the multi-billion baht treatment either; public services throughout Thailand are being improved.

In a few years time, this route may no longer exist. The new Thai government has pledged to invest almost 2 trillion baht on a new high speed rail link with China, replacing almost the entire current network, possibly including a raised section through Bangkok. No longer will trains run at a minimum of half an hour behind schedule, no longer will trains sit waiting for traffic to move, no longer will schoolchildren jump on board the train in the middle of the countryside. But is that such a bad thing? Yes, Thailand may lose its historic, inefficient and entertaining transport system, but this could be replaced by a modern, safe alternative.
The railways, I think, are an analogy for the country as a whole – developing at an incredible rate, there will be no stepping stone as it leaps from being poor to being rich: the railways are transforming from a backward, money-losing government department from the last century to a fast, new, high speed line that will challenge even the world’s richest countries. And Thailand is doing this everywhere; the skyline of Bangkok is dominated by hundreds of brand new skyscrapers that rank it the 23rd tallest city in the world, with 40 more currently being built. Before 2000 you could count the number of multi-storey buildings in the city on your hands. As a country, Thailand is reaching higher and higher.

Finally, we reach Ayutthaya. A world heritage site because of its historic temples, the station is a beautiful old teak building built over a century ago; a lasting legacy of Thailand’s cultural past. And this is the nation’s new challenge – how can it protect this little piece of history when a new high speed line is built? If Thailand can maintain its unique culture and identity while growing up in nationhood, it will truly be a sight to behold.