Railway development gains speed: Thailand fast-tracks five-country rail link

[Selatan]

 

[Selatan]

9 hours ago, HarrySeaman said:

Not really.  Except for the new track for the high speed rail it is all narrow gauge track.  Because of this when traveling by train between Thailand and Malaysia you have to get off the train with your luggage, cross the border on foot, and then board a different train in the other country. 

 

A good example is the smooth running luxury Eastern & Oriental Express train from Kuala Lumpur railway station (Salak Selatan) to Thailand.  Once you cross into Thailand you are back to outdated railway cars, terrible tracks, and multiple stops along the way to Bangkok.

I think the reason why you have to get off Malaysian trains at Padang Besar is because the tracks in Thailand are not electrified, not because they are of a different gauge. The existing tracks between Kuala Lumpur and Padang Besar are of meter gauge, same like in Thailand. Apart from using electricity, the line from Kuala Lumpur to Padang Besar is a double-track one, so there is less need for trains to stop often to let other trains pass.

 

The double-tracking project in Malaysia also eliminated all level crossings, so trains crashing into cars have long become a thing of the past.

 

The new East Coast Rail Link from Kota Bharu to Kuala Lumpur that is currently being built is of standard gauge.

[MickGC]

Great article here by James Clark in the Future Southeast Asia magazine

https://futuresoutheastasia.com/the-mixed-gauge-mess-of-thailands-railways/

 

[sandyf]

19 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

It is beyond rational, that Thailand has not done this already. For the movement of cargo, if nothing else. The highways are clogged with trucks of all sizes, due to a lack of planning. And the trains here are quite an embarrassment. Even if you decide to travel by train here on the antique cars, you have to deal with consistent delays of 30 minutes to 3 hours. I gave up using them. 

 

The OP refers to the Chinese initiative, not the Thai  plans.

 

The line is being built by China Railway Construction Corp, and will use Chinese rolling stock based on CRRC’s Fuxing Hao CR300 high-speed trains, capable of reaching speeds of 250km/h.

https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/first-phase-of-thai-china-railway-to-be-complete-in-2027/

[sandyf]

18 hours ago, HarrySeaman said:

Not really.  Except for the new track for the high speed rail it is all narrow gauge track.  Because of this when traveling by train between Thailand and Malaysia you have to get off the train with your luggage, cross the border on foot, and then board a different train in the other country. 

 

A good example is the smooth running luxury Eastern & Oriental Express train from Kuala Lumpur railway station (Salak Selatan) to Thailand.  Once you cross into Thailand you are back to outdated railway cars, terrible tracks, and multiple stops along the way to Bangkok.

When I went to Penang a few years ago we had to get off the train with luggage, cross the border on foot and get back on the train. Nowadays you just have to go to a different platform.

Thailand replaced all the rolling stock on the long distance lines in 2016, can hardly be called outdated.

[Sydebolle]

Good luck with that one, "expected to be completed by 2027".

What happened with the Malaysian interest on a link from Danang across Thailand to Yangon; plus all those projects so appropriately tabled by Saksayam Chidchob during his tenure as transport minister? 

[Moonlover]

8 hours ago, MickGC said:

Great article here by James Clark in the Future Southeast Asia magazine

https://futuresoutheastasia.com/the-mixed-gauge-mess-of-thailands-railways/

 

Thanks for that link. It's very interesting.

 

What dog's dinner it all is 

[Bob Acker]

Laos uses the wide-gauge track and Thailand is narrow-gauge.  What is the plan to deal with this?

[spidermike007]

14 hours ago, sandyf said:

The OP refers to the Chinese initiative, not the Thai  plans.

 

The line is being built by China Railway Construction Corp, and will use Chinese rolling stock based on CRRC’s Fuxing Hao CR300 high-speed trains, capable of reaching speeds of 250km/h.

https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/first-phase-of-thai-china-railway-to-be-complete-in-2027/

All the more reason to call out the Thai officials for not having any sort of plan to speed up the movement of cargo, and figure out a way to ease the congestions on the highways. They are literally decades and decades behind the curve. 

[sandyf]

9 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

They are literally decades and decades behind the curve. 

In other words an emerging economy.

When Thai GDP equates to the major economies they will probably be ahead of the curve. The UK will never have a HSR network, just axed part of the one line being built.

 

Rishi Sunak has cancelled the northern leg of the HS2 high-speed rail project, citing ballooning costs and mismanagement.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/4/why-uk-pm-sunak-axed-part-of-high-speed-rail-link-hs2

[bkkcanuck8]

On 11/4/2023 at 9:15 AM, sandyf said:

The OP refers to the Chinese initiative, not the Thai  plans.

 

The line is being built by China Railway Construction Corp, and will use Chinese rolling stock based on CRRC’s Fuxing Hao CR300 high-speed trains, capable of reaching speeds of 250km/h.

 

Current rolling stock can go much faster than many of the rail lines can handle (that is the easy part).  For a line to handle 250km/h it has to have the proper grading and curve radius and no level crossings...  (that usually results in more tunnels as the grade does not allow going over sometimes).  Admittedly the parts of the new construction I have seen are not on the main-line on the map, so maybe they are doing two different gradings for differing max speeds...  It is the tracks and right of ways that is the largest cost of any high-speed train network ... by far.  Also, having a high speed network is not worth much if you put lots of stops along the line - if you are constantly speeding up and slowing down to stop... it defeats the purpose.

Edited November 11, 2023 by bkkcanuck8

[sandyf]

1 hour ago, bkkcanuck8 said:

 

Current rolling stock can go much faster than many of the rail lines can handle (that is the easy part).  For a line to handle 250km/h it has to have the proper grading and curve radius and no level crossings...  (that usually results in more tunnels as the grade does not allow going over sometimes).  Admittedly the parts of the new construction I have seen are not on the main-line on the map, so maybe they are doing two different gradings for differing max speeds...  It is the tracks and right of ways that is the largest cost of any high-speed train network ... by far.  Also, having a high speed network is not worth much if you put lots of stops along the line - if you are constantly speeding up and slowing down to stop... it defeats the purpose.

The project has nothing to do with any current line, brand new construction and from what i have seen mainly elevated.

I have been on the Laos China railway and they have 8 stops between Boten and Vientiane, about 400Km.

[Guderian]

After the highly embarrassing and incredibly expensive HS2 fiasco in England, all I can say is good luck to them.