I have many thoughts on this. Here are just a few. It took what, about 20 years from the initial plan, through multiple governments and multiple contract revisions for the BTS to finally open. This is starting to smell the same. Every successive government will make changes and each change will involve more tea money. “The public-private partnership (PPP) is being developed by the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) and Asia Era One, a consortium led by CP Group. The consortium secured the concession in 2019 after requesting 117.2 billion baht in government investment support. Major shareholders include Charoen Pokphand Holding (87.15%), Bangkok Expressway and Metro Plc (5.14%), China Railway Construction Corporation (5.14%) and Italian-Thai Development (2.57%).” Well, that’s a winning cast of characters. Having seen the quality of some public transportation projects that utilized Thai contractors, I don’t believe that this will end up being a high speed train. One example, the new M6 motorway. The roadbed is uneven. Every bridge is not level with the road. Driving on it you notice every single bump. It’s a piece of poop that’s already falling apart before it’s even officially open. Or, the Airport Rail Link. Modeled on the Hong Kong system it is “Same same but different”. Integration with the Thai-Chinese high-speed rail project? That will probably involve ever more turf wars, more contract renegotiations, more delays. Change governments, change ministers, redraft. Good luck Thailand. I hope at least one of those projects comes to fruition.
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