Abstract
This article aims to reveal the effect of railways on rice transport from the Northeast in wartime and postwar Thailand. Thai railways suffered insufficient transport capacity due to a shortage of rolling stock after the outbreak of World War II for two reasons: Thai rolling stock was requisitioned for Japanese military trains and the railway system gained unexpected “new line” in the “lost territory.” When Central Thailand, the main rice-producing center, had a poor harvest in 1942, the Japanese military was urged to return part of the rolling stock to deliver the rice from the Northeast or Battambang to Bangkok. The Japanese complied with the request to the extent of running a special rice train, but the rolling stock was soon reassigned again to military purposes, to the detriment of rice transport. After the war ended, Thailand tried to improve its situation through the delivery of rice to the Allies and the resumption of rice exports under the International Emergency Food Committee. As more rolling stock was urgently needed to increase rice transport from the Northeast and rice exports from the country, procurement was accomplished by bartering rice. However, the volume of rice transport did not exceed the prewar level even after the rehabilitation of rail transport. During the war, the stagnation of rail transport was not such a serious problem because rice production in the Northeast had also stagnated. The more serious problem occurred after the war as rice production grew rapidly in the Northeast and railways could not cope with the amount of rice dispatched from the region. As domestic transport demand continued to expand more than railway transport capacity, the railways no longer coped with it.
