[djcapelis]

This article is not quite accurate like some of the others that have excitedly reported on this stretch a bit before it’s true. You cannot yet travel this all the way by passenger rail in either theory or practice. By only the narrowest of gaps: LCR ends in Vientiane and the train line to Bangkok terminates at Thanaleng outside town. The distance between them is not far, but it is not connected by rail with passenger service. I tried. I’ve ridden both the LCR, and the SRT service via the Thanaleng shuttle to Nong Khai prior to catching the sleeper to Bangkok. If there was a way to get from one station to another by rail between Thanaleng and Vientiane I would have done it!

This will change when the high speed rail to Bangkok is complete, but we’re not quite there yet.

Hopefully soon. :)

[shikon7]

If you need to change trains, you will need to walk (or travel by non-train) some distance in all cases. I wonder, is there a limit to the transfer distance, so that it still counts as traveling by rail only?

[djcapelis]

Yes. It’s a transfer if it’s the same train station. If it isn’t, it isn’t. :)

[touisteur]

Which would be a problem with connexions through Paris, where (being a symbol or symptom or French centralism) most big train stations are terminus from one direction. Montparnasse, Gare de Lyon, Austerlitz, Gare de l'Est and Gare du Nord are connected via the subway network (or you can walk a 5 minutes stroll between the last two) but you can still get a connection 'through' Paris when buying tickets.

[dibujaron]

I mean, the subway is still a train. it's just two transfers instead of one?