New Mekong bridge to slash bus travel times between Saigon and Phnom Penh

In a few months, a new Japanese-funded bridge over the Mekong River at Neak Loeung in Cambodia, will slash an hour off the road trip between Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh. Since regular buses began operating the seven hour route between the two cities a decade ago, business has boomed. But the ferry and border crossings add hours to the journey. One obstacle will soon disappear. Improvements at Vietnam's messy border crossing could cut travel times further. Mekong bridges have been transforming life along the river as well as local economies for two decades. Across China, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam there are more than twenty. But there are losers too. The ferry system supports a micro-economy of vendors and others - usually the very poor - who will have their livelihoods wiped out by the new bridge. The bridges shift the transportation of the Mekong’s agriculture from the river to the road - also impacting the viability of old tourist favourites like the Cai Rang Floating Market at Can Tho in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.