Why did the Japanese want the railway built?

Legacy. The railway was completed in October 1943. The Japanese were able to use it to supply their troops in Burma despite the repeated destruction of bridges by Allied bombing. More than 90,000 Asian civilians died on the railway, as well as 16,000 POWs, of whom about 2800 were Australian.



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The Burma-Thailand railway (known also as the Thailand-Burma or Burma–Siam railway) was built in 1942–43. Its purpose was to supply the Japanese forces in Burma, bypassing the sea routes which had become vulnerable when Japanese naval strength was reduced in the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway in May and June 1942.

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While canal projects did have the highest death totals, railway projects were probably the most dangerous recording over 100,000 deaths on just two projects — The Transcontinental Railroad with 1,200 deaths, although this number has never been verified, and the Burma-Siam Railway with 106,000 construction worker deaths ...

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Between June 1946 and July 1947 a total of 111 Japanese and Korean soldiers were convicted for crimes on the Burma-Thailand railway in Singapore. Death sentences were given to 32 of these men. Among those tried were some of the most feared men on the railway.

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Railroad deaths totaled 954 in 2022, an 11% increase from the 2021 revised total of 859 and the highest since 2007. Nonfatal injuries totaled 6,252, a 6% increase from the 2021 revised total of 5,882.

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1830. 15 September – United Kingdom – William Huskisson becomes the first widely reported passenger train death. During the ceremonial opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, while standing on the track at Parkside, he is struck and fatally injured by the locomotive Rocket.

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1650. England – Whickham, County Durham. Two boys die when they are run over by a wagon on a wooden coal train way. While such tramway accidents are not generally listed as rail accidents (note the lack of accidents listed for the next 163 years) this is sometimes cited as the earliest-known railway accident.

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Around 90,000 civilians died, as did more than 12,000 Allied prisoners. Most of the railway was dismantled shortly after the war. Only the first 130 kilometres (81 mi) of the line in Thailand remained, with trains still running as far north as Nam Tok.

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The railroad opened the way for the settlement of the West, provided new economic opportunities, stimulated the development of town and communities, and generally tied the country together.

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1. Begunkodor Railway Station, West Bengal. Located in a remote village in West Bengal, this station is reportedly haunted by a white-sari draped spectral, the ghost of a lady who was run over by a train there.

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What is the safest railway in the world? Japan's Shinkansen high-speed rail network opened for business on 1 October 1964. Since then the system has carried nearly 7 billion passengers without a single fatality due to collision.

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