Thai train tickets can now be bought online

[webfact]

Thai train tickets can now be bought online

By The Nation

 

 

The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) launched an online ticketing and reservation service called the D-Ticket System on Wednesday.

 

Now, passengers wishing to travel on December 18, can make reservations or purchase train tickets using the D-Ticket system via www.railway.co.th.

 

Tickets can only be booked 30 days in advance.

 

Under the new D-Ticket system, passengers can check their seats on the train, manually print out tickets or save their ticket on the phone and scan the QR code on the train. Payments can be made using credit or debit cards as well as the state welfare card.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/travel/30398162

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-11-18

 

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[johng]

Great , now what about those lottery tickets ?

[ukrules]

Amazing, it's like living through the late 1990's all over again.

[DLock]

This a good, but I don't understand the 30-day in advance.

 

If a seat is sellable 1 hour before the train leaves, sell it.

[Jan Dietz]

Why does the link www.railway.co.th actually link to facebook?

more tracking needed?

[NCC1701A]

37 minutes ago, webfact said:

Tickets can only be booked 30 days in advance.

happy to see this until this stupidity. 

[jethro69]

Should have been tested b4 releasing the article, as of now it's useless, pretty much like everything what's issued online in Thailand.

[blackcab]

43 minutes ago, Jan Dietz said:

Why does the link www.railway.co.th actually link to facebook?

more tracking needed?

 

Thanks for pointing that out. The link has been corrected.

[rickthailand]

2 hours ago, DLock said:

This a good, but I don't understand the 30-day in advance.

 

If a seat is sellable 1 hour before the train leaves, sell it.

i think they mean you can buy tickets earliest 30 day n/before departure

[DLock]

13 minutes ago, rickthailand said:

i think they mean you can buy tickets earliest 30 day n/before departure

 

That could be a fair assumption.

 

...expect the example they gave is 

 

"Now, passengers wishing to travel on December 18, can make reservations or purchase train tickets using the D-Ticket system via www.railway.co.th."

 

...indicating that the earliest ticket you can buy from today (18th Nov) is 30 days away.

 

But you could be right.

[scorecard]

3 hours ago, DLock said:

This a good, but I don't understand the 30-day in advance.

 

If a seat is sellable 1 hour before the train leaves, sell it.

Further my guess is that a very high % of travelers make the decision to travel in the last week or last few days before the travel date.

 

 

[soi3eddie]

Why do SRT even bother charging for train tickets? Probably cheaper to save tech and ticket office staff costs and just let passengers travel for free. I did Bangkok to Pattaya in August for the grand cost of 31 Baht for nearly 4 hours on the train.

[bannork]

39 minutes ago, soi3eddie said:

Why do SRT even bother charging for train tickets? Probably cheaper to save tech and ticket office staff costs and just let passengers travel for free. I did Bangkok to Pattaya in August for the grand cost of 31 Baht for nearly 4 hours on the train.

You chose the ice- cream train, stops at every station.

In contrast, the long distance overnight sleepers are excellent value for money. Usually punctual, the trains depart in the early evening. With a comfortable bed, one arrives early the next morning, hundreds of kilometres away, refreshed and ready for the world.

[phetphet]

5 hours ago, DLock said:

This a good, but I don't understand the 30-day in advance.

 

If a seat is sellable 1 hour before the train leaves, sell it.

Don't you know how old their  computer system is?

[Orient Express]

The wording is unclear: 30 days is the maximum advance booking timeframe.

 

Presumably 18th December is the hard start date for the new system. So today only that date can be booked in advance; tomorrow the 18th and 19th December, etc, until the full one month period rolls out by 18th December (when booking should be available to 17th January).

 

That's assuming all goes well!

[samsensam]

 

i was under the impression they could already be bought on line... i think i've seen travel agents using an online booking system, maybe i'm wrong, maybe travel agents only...? anyway better late than never,

[katana]

11 minutes ago, samsensam said:

 

i was under the impression they could already be bought on line... i think i've seen travel agents using an online booking system, maybe i'm wrong, maybe travel agents only...? anyway better late than never,

Back in 1996 I went into a BKK tavel agency for a BKK - CNX train ticket. They booked it on line and printed it out for me there and then for a small fee while I was in the shop.

45 minutes ago, bannork said:

You chose the ice- cream train, stops at every station.

In contrast, the long distance overnight sleepers are excellent value for money. Usually punctual, the trains depart in the early evening. With a comfortable bed, one arrives early the next morning, hundreds of kilometres away, refreshed and ready for the world.

You must be a heavy sleeper. I did the BKK- CNX overnight once. Not easy to sleep much with all that noise and swaying!

[alyx]

Regarding the 30 days I may be the only one on this page to understand it another way: I understood that a ticket could be bought 30 days prior to the date of departure until the last minute (the latter part is my assumption and I reckon that this is definitely missing) hence the example of the" now you can book for the 18th of December" which makes sense.

[ChaiyaTH]

Runs on dticket.railway.co.th with a horrible slow WordPress theme, when finally getting to search it gives me ''No data found'' on 10 attempted dates. India would do that job for like a few hundred dollars, I guess here they had a few million baht budget.

Edited November 18, 2020 by ChaiyaTH

[peterpaintpot]

41 minutes ago, samsensam said:

 

i was under the impression they could already be bought on line... i think i've seen travel agents using an online booking system, maybe i'm wrong, maybe travel agents only...? anyway better late than never,

Well I have visited the Thai Embassy in Laos twice in the last 3 years and needed to book a first class sleeper apartment and enquiring at the Ibis Hotel desk they said no problem and showed me where the website was to be found on the communal computer and both times it was simple to do and pay by card and print tickets, So what's the fuss about now, how come they are launching a new seat booking system when you could already do it.

[MarineEquine]

1 hour ago, samsensam said:

 

i was under the impression they could already be bought on line... i think i've seen travel agents using an online booking system, maybe i'm wrong, maybe travel agents only...? anyway better late than never,

How to book train tickets online in Thailand

[jethro69]

1 hour ago, ChaiyaTH said:

Runs on dticket.railway.co.th with a horrible slow WordPress theme, when finally getting to search it gives me ''No data found'' on 10 attempted dates. India would do that job for like a few hundred dollars, I guess here they had a few million baht budget.

Exactly my point, tried the same. On the Thai site it did not accept to enter a date, on the English site it did, however it resulted into a data not found.

At that point I stopped. it might be successful with the outdated Internet Explores, as it was with other official sites from state agencies in Thailand. 

[Natai Beach]

The Nation are useless. So many times they get it completely wrong.

1) You can book tickets online between 2 hours and 29 days from departure. It says it on the website. Photo below.

2) You have been able to buy train tickets online for years.

 

This story in reality is “SRT launch new updated booking website”.
 

It is like they hire amateur foreign backpackers to write their news.  It appears to be rushed and not fact checked. 
The Nation last year stopped printing newspapers. It is only online now. A lot of staff sacked. A sinking ship.

 

 

[teacherclaire]

8 hours ago, johng said:

Great , now what about those lottery tickets ?

For 80 baht, not for 100. In our city is not one who sells them for 80.

 

  I said to one I'll call the cops, they don't seem to worry. Great job Pinocchio, it worked for two weeks. Or was it ten days? 

[mbenson]

3 hours ago, bannork said:

You chose the ice- cream train, stops at every station.

In contrast, the long distance overnight sleepers are excellent value for money. Usually punctual, the trains depart in the early evening. With a comfortable bed, one arrives early the next morning, hundreds of kilometres away, refreshed and ready for the world.

Used to have fun on those while traveling down to Penang for visas. They were very attentive of your needs for beer as I recall.

[IgboChief]

5 hours ago, bannork said:

You chose the ice- cream train, stops at every station.

In contrast, the long distance overnight sleepers are excellent value for money. Usually punctual, the trains depart in the early evening. With a comfortable bed, one arrives early the next morning, hundreds of kilometres away, refreshed and ready for the world.

 

Unfortunately, I can't confirm that. Did Bangkok/Udon Thani once and it was a hell of a ride. Very very slow train and too bumpy to close an eye.  (As frequent flyer I can sleep almost everywhere and am gone before the plane lifts off, but that was really bumpy and loud.)

Also, you must be a short person to fit into the bed. Normal sized man (185cm or more) won't fit into the bed and I am quite tall.

 

Although it was beautiful to be up 5 am in the morning when the train inched its way through Isaan and the rice paddy fields. Amazing atmosphere. But no good coffee and only the normal styrofoam box food (although I bought the best ticket available). 600THB if I remember. You can make it with a bus for the same money in only 7 hours or so.

 

Long story short: I would have love to experience the orient express but I got quite disappointed and would never do that again until they come up with a real luxury offer. Pay 6k THB for a private Taxi ride BKK-UTH gives you more sightseeing and more fun and you also arrive faster.

 

 

Edited November 18, 2020 by IgboChief

[Hackney35]

6 hours ago, teacherclaire said:

For 80 baht, not for 100. In our city is not one who sells them for 80.

 

  I said to one I'll call the cops, they don't seem to worry. Great job Pinocchio, it worked for two weeks. Or was it ten days? 

 
100 baht is just for ‘lucky’ tickets in BKK they will sell you unlucky numbers for 80.....

[bodga]

I  stood  on the  bloody  track  all  day, couldnt get a ticket for  love  nor  money,  just a load of shouting at me ???

[JayClay]

6 hours ago, Natai Beach said:

This story in reality is “SRT launch new updated booking website”.

 

I think the big difference between this system and the old one, is that you don't have to print your tickets. Previously you could book online but were required to present a hard copy of your ticket to the inspector.

 

[quote]

or save their ticket on the phone and scan the QR code on the train.[/quote]

[klauskunkel]

Looking at the English dropdown lists for origin and destination, Hua Lamphong seems to be missing as a station.