Riding the Yangon Circle Train

 

1404 Yangon Central
I have been wanting to ride this train for years.  The Yangon Circular Railway is a British built train line that connects Yangon Central station (pictured above) with inner city suburbs, impoverished towns and semi- country villages in a 46 kilometre (28.5 mile) long loop with 39 stations. Trip Adviser users rate it as the seventh best attraction in Yangon with people saying “a trip of a life time and  Excellent way to watch everyday life in yangon“.

 

map-and-timing

Some of the key stations with close by attractions include:

 

Booking: 8/10

An estimated 100,000 to 150,000 passengers travel the system daily. Tickets are sold from a special ticket office on platforms 6 and 7 at Yangon station, pictured behind me here or at ticket booths at most stations. 

140425 YCR Ticket office

Up to April 1, 2014, tickets cost $US1. From that date tourists have been able pay in local currency with the fare costing the equivalent of 30 US cents. We stood at the window to buy the tickets and were ushered around into a little office and offered chairs during the transaction. They did not want to see our passports (this used to be a requirement). No one checked our tickets. 

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The timetable is not an easy timetable to remember. If planning to travel, check for information before riding.

1200px-Yangon_Circular_Railway_Timetable

 

Boarding: 7/10

The platforms were well signposted and staff very helpful at pointing to the right train. The major decision we had to make was whether to travel clockwise or anti clockwise. We went clockwise.

Steps are steep into the actual carriage. Some services were very crowded with standing room only and others were almost deserted.




Photo 2014-04-25 10 13 21

On Board: 6/10

The Seats were wooden which can be uncomfortable but there is no reason to stay in the same carriage. Walking up and down the train to see what is in the other carriages made a welcome break. The train has fans and windows which was sufficient cooling ventilation.

There is an air-conditioned train service which we assiduously avoided for two reasons:

  1. the windows don’t open up which means you miss out on so much fun stuff.
  2. the only people riding the train appeared to be tourist

 

Entertainment: 10/10

There are three ways to use this train:

  1. Scenery Watching – smelling the smells and listening to the sounds. You will see the “real” Myanmar on this trip. One trip adviser critic rated the trip as terrible” saying “A waste of time.”: It was a nearly three hour train ride through unending slums and poverty…”  What did they think they would see in Yangon?IMG_2252
  2. People watching – everyone hops on this train: young old, monks, some with goods for sale, others with purchases. We saw men, women and kids carrying boxes, bags, balloons, bundles, baskets of fruit and vegetables and even plastic signs to be hung up around the city.IMG_2247
  3. Station Hopping – Many tourists ride the train for the whole circuit in one go. As mentioned, we found that there are many sites that were accessible to the train stations and hopped off the train to see them. This broke the journey up and made it more manageable and enjoyable:

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Meals: 8/10

Some pedlars sold food on the train. Some stations had market stalls at them. We took water with us and bought additional drinks stands along the way near the stations.

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We hopped off the train at Hledan Rd Station and enjoyed an amazing lunch at the Green Elephant.

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The Verdict: 78%

The best 30 cents I have spent for a long time.

Would I ride again: Yes

 

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Rail Mayhem in Myanmar (Trip Report)

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Any advice for Myanmar?

 

 

 

 

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Comments

  1. @wildabouttravel
    -very cool. or rather.. isnt april the hottest month?
    -so you hopped off for the green elephant & waited for the next train? how many times did you do that? according to the schedule photo, the shortest time between 2 trains is ~1hr & usually ~2hrs.
    thanks

  2. Hi, may i know only Yangon Train station can buy the ticket, or other station also can buying?

  3. Very detailed post and useful information there! I’m travelling to Yangon in March and will definitely try to hop on and off the train. Would love to see how the locals live.

  4. The timetable appears out of date…. they are much more frequent than that. The air-con train was perfectly fine…. the widows do open, no one seemed to mind, and there were way more locals than tourists on board …..

  5. I made this trip a couple of weeks ago with some of my students who were in Myanmar for market research. For all of us the train ride was one of the top experiences of our two-week stay in Yangon, at least as far as leisure is concerned.

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