How To Improve The Thai Railway-System ?

[Ricardo]

With the fanciful, and IMO unlikely to come to fruition, Chinese proposals for a high-speed network linking Singapore via Thailand to southern-China & beyond, I wonder what ideas we 'experts' here at TV might come up with, to improve the country's existing railway-network ?

Personally I have always enjoyed traveling here by train, the system may now be gradually falling into disrepair, but it's always been a fun way to see Thailand, and must surely have some role in serving the country's future transport-needs ?

I would doubt that the capital will ever become available, to rebuild the whole system properly, but perhaps relatively less-expensive improvements might be possible ? I would float my own two suggestions :-

Improve Scheduling

---------------------

It's only a slight exaggeration to say, almost all long-distance trains arrive in Bangkok in the early-morning, where they are funneled into just two tracks in/out of Hualumpong Station. Which means you're often sitting for hour(s) just outside the bottleneck, and the schedule becomes meaningless, for example I recently spent an hour sitting at Don Muang Station because my train couldn't complete the final leg into the city-centre.

So why not revise the schedule, so that some trains leave slightly-later, and arrive in Bangkok over a longer morning-period ? From Chiang Mai the last regular train (I exclude the Sprinters here) leaves us at about 6 in the evening, and arrives at 7 in the morning (often 8 or 9 in the real world). Running that train with a 10pm-departure might result in an on-schedule 11am arrival, which might suit many passengers better, reaching their hotels or connecting-onwards at lunchtime. And I suspect something similar might be possible for the Southern line, at least.

Why the obsession with early-morning arrivals, which are often not achieved, and clash with the (currently limited ?) local suburban commuter-services ?

Main Terminus

--------------

That final 10 miles into the country's main-terminal will always be a problem, but the SRT have plenty of empty land on the north-side of Bangkok, that's where their freight-yards & engineering-works & engine-sheds currently are, and where they park the empty passenger-trains until their afternoon/evening trips outbound.

So why not build a new main-terminal (call it Bangkok-North ?), where there are more tracks available but before the Southern-line splits-off, and dedicate the most-constricted section of the line to commuter-trains & a shuttle, for those long-distance travellers who do need to go all the way into the centre ?

OK it's a bit of a radical idea, but if the buses can have three edge-of-the-city main-terminals, why can't long-distance trains do something similar ? Why should every long-distance train have to go all-the-way into the centre of town ?

A few years back, we had a thread on Thai Airways, and how it might 'up its game'. Now lets see what ideas we might come up with, for the railway-system ! I'm no rail-transport expert, which probably shows, but surely we have some amongst the TV-membership ? Over to you !

Edited August 13, 2010 by Ricardo

[hansnl]

Oh dear, how to improve the Thai Railway System.

There are a few points to mention which are restricting SRT to get better, fast.

- Single track

- Track width

- Organisation

- Rolling stock

The single track brings down the number of trains very much, any delay will be transferred to opposing trains and following trains.

The track width restricts the speed to around the 100-105 km/h

The organisation of SRT makes the timetable something that can not be changed.

The rolling stock is old, the locomotives are underpowered and there are not enough.

What the SRT needs, obviously, is a huge infusion of money.

Double track, new loco's, new rolling stock and the possibility to reorganise.

If this could be done, the rail could become the most important people carrier on long distance lines, and commuter services.

But, it is also quite obvious that the bus companies will do anything to stop or hinder that.

Like the taxi companies are doing with the rail link to the airport.

Most of all needed, seen the state of the SRT, would be a political will to invest money.

I doubt if the SRT has any priority with the politico's.

However, on the existing platform it is very much possible to make the SRT a better proposition.

More trains, better use of motive power and carriages, better organisation of maintenance.

And the will to start, to design new ways.

For getting a better SRT in the longer run, for example, the connection between Don Mueang and Suvarnibhumi would be possible to realise within 2 years.

The rail connection in Don Mueang is there, all necessary points and switches are already there,the only thing needed is a branch line from the Eastern line to Suvarnibhumi.

Additional, some work on the signalling and quality of the track would be needed to raise the speed limit.

Investment in some rolling stock would also be necessary, diesel Emu's can be bought off the shelf.

The completion of this connection would connect the two airports nicely, the enlargement of Suvarnibhumi will not be necessary and the capital destruction of Don Mueang would be turned around.

The two airport could be run in tandem, like the airports in London.

Second example would be the NE-connection.

In the future the line from Nong Khai to Bangkok would be part of the Asian Rail plans.

Make it double track, and it would be possible to run a train every hour v.v.. or even more depending on also investing in signalling.

The number of buses running from Udon Thani, Khon Kaen and Korat to Bangkok is staggering.

Keep in mind there are, median, around 45 passengers in one bus.

A 10-carriage train would be able to convey around 1000-1200 passengers,

Just imagine the number of buses disappearing from the road.

I do not think the bus companies would be happy, see above.

Do I know something of railways?

Guess so.

Working for the Dutch Railways for quite a long time, the last 15 years in an advisory capacity.

[Phuket Stan]

And a lot of the trucking companies will oppose any upgrade to the rail.....and of coarse the roading companies who are contantly repairing the roads from the damage of the buses and trucks...it just goes on adinfinitum

[SantiSuk]

Regrettably there is no political mileage in supporting significant railway development in Thailand. The places the railways would go to, with the exception of the SE coast and possible exception of CM, are full of people that don't matter in this country and they are happy paying next to nothing on the crappy buses. Possible exception - tourists but they have the money and the time constraints to encourage them to fly. Give it 50 years when they've had their agricultural revolution and maybe the boot will be on the other foot.

It just might all turn around if the proposed SE line were to take off properly.

Sell Hualumphong (and loads of other railway land which an old state monopoly will almost certainly be hanging onto for no good reason), make a Northern terminal as sensibly suggested by the OP - perhaps even at Don Meuang and make the line into revamped Hualumphong part of the overhead BTS network or overhead airport express to free up the East-West Bangkok vehicle traffic flows in the inner northern suburbs. Capture the development profits with a new office/shopping city at the terminus and plough the profits back into patching up the network. I like the linking of the two airports idea also.

If only Bangkok and National governments could get together on this they have the capability of channeling the capital's economic development around a revised rail network in that Northern triangle so that money is generated for the future network ... oh well pigs might fly!

[punisher]

Regrettably there is no political mileage in supporting significant railway development in Thailand. The places the railways would go to, with the exception of the SE coast and possible exception of CM, are full of people that don't matter in this country and they are happy paying next to nothing on the crappy buses. Possible exception - tourists but they have the money and the time constraints to encourage them to fly. Give it 50 years when they've had their agricultural revolution and maybe the boot will be on the other foot.

It just might all turn around if the proposed SE line were to take off properly.

Sell Hualumphong (and loads of other railway land which an old state monopoly will almost certainly be hanging onto for no good reason), make a Northern terminal as sensibly suggested by the OP - perhaps even at Don Meuang and make the line into revamped Hualumphong part of the overhead BTS network or overhead airport express to free up the East-West Bangkok vehicle traffic flows in the inner northern suburbs. Capture the development profits with a new office/shopping city at the terminus and plough the profits back into patching up the network. I like the linking of the two airports idea also.

If only Bangkok and National governments could get together on this they have the capability of channeling the capital's economic development around a revised rail network in that Northern triangle so that money is generated for the future network ... oh well pigs might fly!

[/q

The Truck mafia is behind all that,they paying tea money to the transport ministerium,so all plans about improving railway system are on ice forever,i never saw so many big trucks driving around like in Thailand.if the government would sell the rights to build new railway, u can be sure the buyer won't be happy,probably get killed,to many hangs with that,if no more trucks on the streets,police can't get tea money for example.I remember some foreigers had the plan to build new railway from Singapore to China i think[not sure]equal to Orient Expess,they said they will pay all,no cost for thaigovernment,no idea what happened with them

[tw25rw]

That knackered old suburban rail system around Bangkok could quite easily be developed into a decent modern light rail system.

[Ricardo]

Interesting to see so many opportunities for positive-change being suggested. Thank You !

I don't see that, if slightly-more freight were moved by rail, it would necessarily have a serious effect on the road-transport industry, as that freight would still need to be moved from the nearest station/freight-depot to the final destination ? Rather than viewing it as a risk, the truckers might be encouraged to see this as an opportunity, to develop an integrated-network ?

Perhaps there are further opportunities for moving bulk heavy-freight by rail, I think this used to happen with oil/petrol-supplies being moved up-country, with dedicated tanker-trains ? I'd suggest the movement of some of the rice-for-export might be one possible opportunity, and heavy construction-materials into the Bangkok-area as another ?

Might a Freight-Liner operation, moving containers from the mains ports to the North-West/North-East/South, also be an economic proposition ? If efficiently organised and operated, perhaps with road-industry input/management/equity-participation, to supply better management & financing ?

Mention of Don Muang & a link to Swampy seems so obvious, as does an onwards regular-service to Pattaya. It seems strange to have just one daily 3rd-class diesel-railcar train running on the Bangkok-Pattaya line. Perhaps a couple of Sprinter-units might provide a better service at minimal extra-cost ? How might the bus-companies be incentivised to support such a development, and make it work, rather than view it as merely unwanted competition ?

And I wonder whether part of the land at the old-airport, already equipped with large unused terminal/maintenance-buildings, might make a good location for the new Bangkok-North main-terminus ? Having an airport dedicated to low-cost & charter-operations, next-door to a new national rail-terminal, surely makes sense ! With the commercial-development spin-off paying for the overall-project ? Is this perhaps the long-term new use of DM, which was so signally not identified, when they decided to build the new airport ? Now the question is how to 'sell' the idea to the military, as current-owners of the land, what might they benefit from the development ?

Because IMO the current vested-interests do have to be given a reason to support any changes, to stand any chance of something actually happening, and to encourage them to divert management-resources into this current backwater-area.

Edited August 15, 2010 by Ricardo