9 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Of course, a major factor is cost. Large-scale rail rerouting, elevated freight corridors, tunnelling, and urban infrastructure redesign require enormous long-term investment and political commitment. Wealthier nations generally undertook these transitions gradually over many decades as their cities expanded.

Nevertheless, the broader criticism remains understandable: allowing freight trains to continue traversing densely gridlocked urban roads via level crossings in a megacity of Bangkok’s size and traffic density feels increasingly incompatible with the realities of a modern capital city.

You are putting all the blame on the railways. How many trains per day actually use this line? Re-routing is a possibility but you still have the problem of crossings so it will need to be elevated. Remind me how long high speed rail taking to build? I would have thought it would be easier to eliminate the major rail crossings by put the cars and buses on a bridge.

1 minute ago, Geoff914 said:

You are putting all the blame on the railways. How many trains per day actually use this line? Re-routing is a possibility but you still have the problem of crossings so it will need to be elevated. Remind me how long high speed rail taking to build? I would have thought it would be easier to eliminate the major rail crossings by put the cars and buses on a bridge.

Of course the congestion could be eliminated by moving freight trains at night. Then just deal with the very few passengers trains each day.

5 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

Of course the congestion could be eliminated by moving freight trains at night. Then just deal with the very few passengers trains each day.

There are way more passenger trains on that line than freight trains.

On 5/17/2026 at 8:33 AM, richard_smith237 said:

The issue therefore was not simply train speed. The issue was that multiple safety measures designed to prevent exactly this type of disaster appear not to have been properly executed.

• Audiable warnings ignored: The bus driver - along with numerous other motorists - crossed the railway tracks while the audible warning had already been sounding for several minutes beforehand.

• The train driver was radioed and instructed to stop, but failed to do so.

• Crossing barriers were not lowered.

• A signalman further up the track failed to properly “red-flag” the train.

This is a case study in the Swiss cheese model of errors.

34 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

There are way more passenger trains on that line than freight trains.

How many more?

I count 12 trains going Eastbound from 06.19 to 18.41at Makkasan and 12 Westbound 06.44 60 19.24. So two an hour roughly. They are stopping at Makkasan any way so going at low speed So let's tunnel the whole of the Eastern line for 24 trains a day plus a few freight trains that could run at night. That looks very cost effective.

21 minutes ago, TedG said:

This is a case study in the Swiss cheese model of errors.

James Reason would be proud of you...

But yes - exactly that....

6 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

How many more?

I count 12 trains going Eastbound from 06.19 to 18.41at Makkasan and 12 Westbound 06.44 60 19.24. So two an hour roughly. They are stopping at Makkasan any way so going at low speed So let's tunnel the whole of the Eastern line for 24 trains a day plus a few freight trains that could run at night. That looks very cost effective.

Why 'run it' into Central Bangkok at all ????

Another fitting argument - why so many cars in central Bangkok that contribute to this extreme level of gridlock ?

23 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

How many more?

I count 12 trains going Eastbound from 06.19 to 18.41at Makkasan and 12 Westbound 06.44 60 19.24. So two an hour roughly. They are stopping at Makkasan any way so going at low speed So let's tunnel the whole of the Eastern line for 24 trains a day plus a few freight trains that could run at night. That looks very cost effective.

Eh? I never said tunnel the route - that would be totally impractical.

I just said there are way more passenger than freight trains so moving freight trains to night wouldn't make a massive difference, and I am pretty sure most freight trains do run at night anyway already.

I haven't counted the trains, just circumstantial evidence of living by that line for the last 15 years. I am often stopped at barriers for passenger trains, ocassionally for freight (in the day time).

27 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Why 'run it' into Central Bangkok at all ????

Another fitting argument - why so many cars in central Bangkok that contribute to this extreme level of gridlock ?

Yes even without the railway Asoke Petchaburi junction is a complete mess. Why run into Central Bangkok? My guess that is where people want to go to. And when the railway was built Makkasan was probably farm land.

18 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Eh? I never said tunnel the route - that would be totally impractical.

I just said there are way more passenger than freight trains so moving freight trains to night wouldn't make a massive difference, and I am pretty sure most freight trains do run at night anyway already.

I haven't counted the trains, just circumstantial evidence of living by that line for the last 15 years. I am often stopped at barriers for passenger trains, ocassionally for freight (in the day time).

Some people have mentioned tunnelling. Only 2 passenger trains per hour and stopping a Makkasan anyway. So comparing the congestion cause by a train every 30 minutes to the volume of traffic for the remaining 29 minutes shows that it is not really the railway that is the problem.

The issue with the freight train as I see it is that they are not stopping where as the passenger train stops at Makkasan anyway. And of course the safety infringements that should have prevented this from happening.

11 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

Yes even without the railway Asoke Petchaburi junction is a complete mess. Why run into Central Bangkok? My guess that is where people want to go to. And when the railway was built Makkasan was probably farm land.

Its freight - mostly, and this line comes in from lat-Krabang to Hualompong.

Although there are overland carriages / people carriages.

I mentioned simple fixes yesterday.

7 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

I mentioned simple fixes yesterday.

What was Thailand Prime Minster's response ?

48 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

What was Thailand Prime Minster's response ?

He agreed with all of them.

Malaysia used to have accidents at level crossings, decades ago. But with the electrified double-tracking project from Johor Bahru to Padang Besar, all level crossings were eliminated by constructing flyovers over them.

I have always felt that my government prioritized highway building over railroads but it looks like that we are not that bad when compared to Thailand. A new, standard gauge railroad called the East Coast Rail Link is due for completion later this year. The ECRL is built by China.