A new central hub for Thailand's fast-developing railway network is being constructed in the capital Bangkok. The station will bring together mass-transit, commuter and long-distance trains and a future high-speed rail network being built in partnership with China. CGTN's Martin Lowe has been to see how the development is getting along.

It'll be called Bangkok Grand Central Station and it's rapidly taking shape – already some of the 26 platforms have been built, soon the tracks will follow. The State Railway of Thailand says construction is two-thirds complete, and the station should be operational by 2020.

Costing almost 500 million US dollars, it stands on four levels: a subway system that'll bring passengers from across the capital, a concourse for buying tickets and refreshments and two tiers of track, one for standard trains and one exclusively for the high-speed network.

At the same time, engineers are constructing the first high-speed route – from Bangkok to the border with Laos, a joint scheme with China, as part of China's Belt and Road global infrastructure project. So far there's just a small test-section being laid, but both China and Thailand have pledged to speed-up development.

MARTIN LOWE GRAND CENTRAL STATION, BANGKOK "When it's completed this will be the largest railway station anywhere in Southeast Asia and the hub of Thailand's new railway network."

It'll replace the existing mainline station at Hua Lamphong – built in a classical Renaissance style more than a hundred years ago. The station is a popular landmark and will be preserved as a railway museum.

DR. RUTH BANOMYONG, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR BUSINESS & TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT, THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY "We need something new, Hua Lamphong is nice, it's classic but it doesn't serve the purpose to say that Thailand is moving towards this new century that we are in so I think from a symbolic perspective it is very important."

Economists hope the China-Thai high-speed network will attract investment right along its 600-kilometer route, bringing prosperity to the under-developed north and northeast. That would help lift Thailand out of its so-called "middle-income" trap, in which an economy grows to a certain point but then stalls. Many also predict the new station will prompt the construction of thousands of offices and homes all around it, creating a brand new business district for the city. Martin Lowe, CGTN, Bangkok.