Yangon (also known as Rangoon) is the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma) but it was a capital city before. Nay Pyi Taw was termed as a capital of Myanmar since 2006 and it was built purposely at the central part of the country. But Yangon is still the most important city for commercial business and has many work opportunities for the people from countryside. The bigger the city is, the more important the public transportation of the city is. People choose the transportation by their income in Yangon. People use taxi (most comfortable but most expensive transportation), bus (most convenience way to travel with the reasonable price but very traffic), water bus (very limited stops but no traffic) and train (the cheapest with no traffic). Nowadays, Yangon circular trains are popular again because the main roads of city are crowed with buses, taxi and cars which made Yangon more traffic especially in the rush hours.

History of Yangon Circular Railway

The British built Yangon Circular Railway and Yangon Central Station in 1877. During the colonial time before Yangon Circular Railway was built, the people in Yangon used cars, rickshaws and carriages as land transportation and boats and ships were used as water transportation. When the British got lower part of Myanmar, they tried to introduce railway and trains. After Myanmar got freedom, Yangon Circular Railway was upgraded as the double track railway in 1954. The Ministry of Railway Transportation publicized that the government plans to denationalize the Yangon Circular Railway in July 2011 because the government facing the big loss every month. The operational costs are about 260 million Kyats (325,000 USD) as monthly charges but the income is only about 42 million Kyats (52,500 USD) per months. The lower to normal class citizens in Yangon are relying on the train as daily transport. That’s why the price of the train ticket has to keep low for the passengers to make the price payable by anyone. The ticket price was 1 USD for foreigners but now the price is only 100 to 200 Kyats (around 10 to 10 cents USD) per ride for all people (including tourists).

Yangon Central Railway Station

Yangon Central Railway Station was first built by the British in 1877. During World War II, the station was one of the main targets for the Japanese bombers because it is the important and main station for transportation which connect with most parts of Burma. In 1943, the British destroyed the station for retreating the British army and to make slow of advancing by the Japanese forces. The Yangon Central Railway Station that we see nowadays was designed and constructed by engineer U Tin with traditional Burmese architectural style in 1947. The construction finished in 1954 and it costs 4.75 million Kyats in total. In 5th June 1954, the opening ceremony of the new Yangon Central Railway Station was made. Yangon Central Railway Station had been also chosen as a landmark building since 1996 and it is the biggest railway station in Myanmar. It is located at the downtown area which is on the southern side of Yangon and on the upper part of Pansodan Street (was known as Phayre Street).

Experiencing the Yangon Circular Train

When tourists visit Myanmar, one of the best and cheapest way to see the city of Yangon (Rangoon) is taking the local Yangon Circular Train. If you keen to know the lifestyle, the daily routine of Myanmar people and see the outskirts area, I recommend you to ride a Yangon Circular Train. Not only this, you can also enjoy the old fashion train in the largest city of Myanmar. All of the trains are second hand trains and those are mostly imported from Japan. Most of the seats are hard benches and only some fans are working properly. An average of 100,000 to 150,000 commuters (including students, workers, office staffs, costermongers and monks) go to their particular places by riding Yangon Circular Trains everyday. There are many vendors going around the carriages and selling their goods like fruits, cigarettes, flowers, snacks, drinks, newspaper & journals and so on. The train runs with low speed and sometimes you can even see the peoples hopping on and off the trains while still in motion.

There will be 39 stations that linked the city’s commercial area with the suburbs area in one big loop if you take a ride of Yangon Circular Train. The loop begins from Yangon Central Railway Station and it will take around 3 hours to finish the whole circuit. Tourists usually ride the trains from Yangon Central Railway Station which seem the easiest and convenience way to understand how to ride. You can get the ticket at the ticket counter at the platform no. 7 and the staffs will show you the right direction for your designated destination with the departure time. The ticket will allow you to hop on and off at any stations and the stopping time at each station will only about 1 to 2 minutes. Among those 39 stations, Danyingon station is one of the busiest stations and there is the large fruit and vegetable market which seem the popular spot for the tourists. Some foreigners just go to that station to take pictures and experience the local lifestyle because of the unusual scenery as a train station. The Danyingon market is just right next to the stations and the vendors are overflowing all over the tracks and platforms while there is no train passing by. But when the train comes, the people move away their things out of the tracks. You might think it is very dangerous and rare views to see in any countries but the people from Myanmar especially around that area get used to it. I can assure that this is one of the cheapest way to explore and experiencing the local lifestyles in the biggest city of Myanmar, Yangon, without any traffic problems.