Bangkok/Things to do/ culture
The Maeklong railway market
A working produce market built along a live railway line, where the stalls and awnings pull back for each passing train. About 80km south-west of Bangkok.
What we checked
Checked on 21 September 2026. The State Railway's website could not be reached, so this listing deliberately prints no timetable: the times circulating come from rail enthusiast sites and tour operators, and they change. The market's existence, position and operation are documented, but the one figure a visitor needs, today's train times, is the one we cannot source. We have not been.
Verified via. OpenStreetMap carries the market as way 499351150 at 13.4077, 100.0009, alongside the Maeklong line in Samut Songkhram. The State Railway of Thailand's own site refused every connection when we tried it, so no train time here comes from the operator.
Admission
Free. Free. It is a public market on a working railway, not a ticketed attraction. Getting there is the cost: it is about 80km from Bangkok and most visitors come on a tour that also takes in Damnoen Saduak.
The line to Maeklong runs straight through the middle of a fruit and vegetable market. Not beside it: through it. Stalls are set up on the sleepers with awnings over them, and several times a day, when a train is due, the traders fold the awnings back, slide the trays clear of the rails and let a train pass at walking speed a few centimetres from the produce. Then everything slides out again.
The times are the problem. We will not print a timetable, because the State Railway’s own site would not load for us and every schedule circulating online comes from someone else’s blog. Ask your driver or the tour operator on the day, and be there twenty minutes early.
It is staged around the trains, and that is fine. The crowd assembles a few minutes before each passing, phones up, and disperses immediately afterwards. In between it is an ordinary, cheerful provincial market, which is the better half of the visit and the half most people skip.
It is a day trip, not an outing. Samut Songkhram is about 80km from Bangkok. Almost everyone comes as part of a tour that also does Damnoen Saduak floating market, which is 20km away, and that pairing is the sensible way to do it.
Stand where the traders tell you to stand. The gap between train and stall is genuinely small.
Best for
Pairing with Damnoen Saduak on a day out of the city, for one very good few minutes
Skip if
Crowd-averse visitors, and anyone who cannot check the day's train times first
Where it actually is
Near Maeklong railway station, off Phetsamut Road, Mueang Samut Songkhram 75000
Bangkok
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.View larger map
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