Hualamphong Station Bangkok, Bangkok

Located in the center of the city, Hua Lamphong Grand Central Railway Station, officially known as the Bangkok Grand Central Terminal Railway Station, is the main railway station in Bangkok. It is completed in June 1916 after six years of construction work and is operated by the State Railway of Thailand. Built in Italian Neo-Renaissance style, the station is decorated with wooden roofs and stained glass windows.

The station was built at the previous national railway's maintenance centre which moved to Makkasan in June 1910. The railway station survived the bombing of the Allies during World War II. Mario Tamagno and Annibale Rigotti designed the plan and architecture of the station. There are 14 platforms, 26 ticket booths and two electric display boards. Hua Lamphong serves over 130 trains and approximately 60,000 passengers travel each day by using this service. Since 2004 the station has also been connected by underground passage to the MRT subway system with a station by the same name.

Bangkok's Main Railway Station is huge, hot and extremely busy. It lies in the center of the city with easy access to Chinatown and other important sites. Platforms in the station are crowded with luggage carts, arriving and departing passengers and vendors.

Many dining choices are available inside the station including coffee shops, restaurants, a cafeteria, several 'fast-food' outlets, convenience stores, and platform vendors. You can get everything from barbeque chicken and fruit to bottles of whisky, beer and soft drinks.

Hualamphong train station in Bangkok is the hub that links Thailand's remote provinces in the North, North East and South with the hectic and chaotic metropolis of Bangkok. Many of the trains belong to old era with train conductors in elaborate uniforms and several classes of trains available to passengers. The passengers have their choice of hard seat third class cars without air conditioning up to first class air conditioned cars with private rooms and restaurant car.

Visiting this train station is a unique experience in the sense that it gives you a cross-cultural experience as you can see members from every economic and religious sector of Thai society converging at one point.