Express Trains To Suvarnabhumi Airport Suspended

[george]

Express train service to Suvarnabhumi Airport suspended

BANGKOK, March 30 – The Airport Link’s express train services to Suvarnabhumi Airport were suspended due to a lack of spare parts, which are delivered from a company in Germany.

The "Express Line” train service to Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok’s main airpor, was suspended but is expected to resume service on Monday as Siemens AG, the train manufacturer, has sent new spare parts for the power-connecting carbon brush mechanism which is due to arrive Sunday, according to Pakorn Tangjetsakao, acting president of the SRT Electric Train company.

Meanwhile, the “City Line” stopped operating yesterday because its carbon brushes are worn out and there are no spare parts left. Three other “City Line” trains are still operating on a reduced schedule. It now runs every 20 minutes, a wider gap in frequency than the normal schedule of every 15 minutes, so it inconvenienced about 40,000 passengers and the trains are crowded during rush hours.

However, Siemens AG informed the SRT Electric Train Company that it will speed up the procurement of 32 carbon brushes and will have them delivered on Wednesday, so all nine trains (both the Express and City Lines) can resume services ahead of schedule as the service suspension causes losses of about Bt1.2 million (US$40,000) per day.

In the long term, Siemens must solve the quick wearing down of the carbon brushes, which is caused by the problem in the tunnel design at Suvarnabhumi station. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2011-03-30

[petedk]

I read in another English language newspaper that because of the design of the tunnel the lifespan of the brushes has been reduced from six months to one week.

If there are nine trains and each train uses 2 brushes (a pair) per week then they'd better order more now or risk stopping again in a couple of weeks.

[powderpuff]

Classic.

[Soutpeel]

Classic.

Almost as good at the battery running out on the Tsumani detector...

[Macmundi]

Siemens is well known for using parts that have no other alternatives. In other words, not flexible. You either use that exact part (which will obviously cost you an arm and a leg) or suffer losses from downtime. I prefer Japanese control technology.

[jfchandler]

I hate to say this, but how typically Thailand...

How long's the service been running since the start now, six months or so???

And they already have train parts wearing out, supposedly because of some faulty design on the rail line itself at the airport...

Strange though...because they test ran the trains for quite some time at the beginning... and after that they've been running a full regular schedule for several months now...

So why is this maintenance problem just surfacing now... Or it took them some months to work their way thru their entire supply of replacement parts without doing anything proactive to resolve the problemms???

Of course, you gotta wonder why the Thai folks running the line let it deteriorate to the point where they had to pull the trains out of service and cancel operations...

You mean to tell me.... they didn't know this problem was coming far enough ahead of time to sort out the spare parts problem before it got critical??? Hard to imagine...

But then again, TIT.

(PS - Just wait till the same thing happens with spare parts for Thailand's (possible) future nuclear power plants... OOOPS..... Call Germany QUICK!!!!)

[McFarang]

Unbelievable but wait of course it is,the same as any shop that sells electrical items . I will have that one please (check stock) solly no have.

Ok I will have the display model. Solly cannot that is only one cannot sell so we can waste our time and yours as we have none but we advertise we do at velly good price.

No spares for an important rail link oh that costs money! Don't we just love this country.

[Bagwan]

SNAFU. Will anybody shoulder the blame for this? Will lessons be learned? Another Thai hub of which the wheels don't go round - literally.

[dumpling]

Taxi drivers will be happy

[CosmicSurfer]

Classic.

Not "Classic"... Thailand !!!

TIT

55555555555555555555555555555555

CS

[surangw]

or due to less profits for AOT cars

[sbk]

Enough with the Thai bashing thanks, my patience has worn completely thin on this kind of attitude.

[jfchandler]

SBK, I do understand your feeling and the concern.... But I'd hasten to add, what's being bashed here is not people or a nationality per se.

What's being bashed here is a culture of indifference and inattention to details, where it exists, that leads to problems throughout the society...

Those of us who live here do so mostly, I'd assume, by choice and free will. So we must like it...and I do... But that doesn't mean there aren't faults to be called out... same as any other place. And the one we're talking about is probably one of the bigger/biggest ones on the table here.

Edited March 30, 2011 by jfchandler

[givenall]

Classic.

Almost as good at the battery running out on the Tsumani detector...

I argue with anyone that says Thailand is not a 3^rdworld country. At least they run this country like one

[Buchholz]

SBK, I do understand your feeling and the concern.... But I'd hasten to add, what's being bashed here is not people or a nationality per se.

What's being bashed here is a culture of indifference and inattention to details, where it exists, that leads to problems throughout the society...

Those of us who live here do so mostly, I'd assume, by choice and free will. So we must like it...and I do... But that doesn't mean there aren't faults to be called out... same as any other place. And the one we're talking about is probably one of the bigger/biggest ones on the table here.

Where's the German bashing?

It seems that Siemens is up to their neck in culpability for some of the mess? Their design? Their lack of quickly delivering spare parts? etc.

[McFarang]

Enough with the Thai bashing thanks, my patience has worn completely thin on this kind of attitude.

SBK Its not Thai Bashing it's true you only have to look at other countries like Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea even Indonesia with all the resources that LOS has it should be way ahead of them. The Generations of unchecked corruption that has now made it an every day event or part of every day life. Its the lackadaisical attitude to everything that is this country's downfall and that is why in SE Asia LOS will always be second division continually fighting relegation.

In saying that I would rather live here than any of the other countries because of the people and the culture and I love it here but luckily i do not have to work here so I bite my lip and put up with the nonsense and corruption because it is not the main part of my life and when I feel frustrated at the little things that are so difficult here I let my Thai wife take over (it's better that way).

Certainly not Thai bashing just Farang's comments on simple things that should and could be done better and maybe one day promotion into the Premier League of SE Asia (dream on Mr Farang).

I do hope you do not take offense at my comments as deep down I am sure you feel the same but showing it is another forum completley.

[geriatrickid]

I'm sorry but I don't even understand this power-connecting carbon brush mechanism. What does it do? Can one of you technical wizzes dumb this down for me please. And please no smartass comments that it connects power to the train. I got that part.

I note the comments that it is a design defect. Is it a design defect or a construction defect? I had a look at the contractors;

• B. Grimm International Co., Ltd.
• B. Grimm MBM Hong Kong Ltd.
• Siemens Aktiengesellschaft Co., Ltd.
• Siemens Co., Ltd.
• Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction Public Co., Ltd.

and I looked at the project consultants and managers;

• Asian Engineering Consultants Co., Ltd.
• Thai Engineering Consultants Co., Ltd.
• Pacific Consultants International Co., Ltd.
• Chotichinda Mouchel Consultants Co., Ltd.
• DE-Consult Dentsche Eisenbahn – Consulting Gmbh
• Wisit Engineering Consultants Co., Ltd.
• Design Concept Co., Ltd.

And it seems there is enough blame to go to foreigners as well as Thais. According to the old press releases;

Work has been split into two parts. Civil, architectural and building work worth a total of 12·2 bn baht will be provided by Sino-Thai Engineering & Construction Public Co. Railway systems and the facilities at the City Air Terminal will be provided by a grouping of B Grimm International, B Grimm MBM Hong Kong Ltd, Siemens AG and local subsidiary Siemens Ltd at a cost of 13·6bn baht. Subcontractor China Rail will be responsible for the trackwork, and LZB inductive train control is being provided.

Maybe some guy named Horst wasn't payng attention?

[Nisa]

Classic.

Almost as good at the battery running out on the Tsumani detector...

I argue with anyone that says Thailand is not a 3^rdworld country. At least they run this country like one

You should visit some actual 3rd world countries in Africa. Thailand is classified as a developing nation though I do believe it is on the lower end of the scale.

[upupandaway]

Unbelievable but wait of course it is,the same as any shop that sells electrical items . I will have that one please (check stock) solly no have.

Ok I will have the display model. Solly cannot that is only one cannot sell so we can waste our time and yours as we have none but we advertise we do at velly good price.

No spares for an important rail link oh that costs money! Don't we just love this country.

Yes as a matter of fact I do love this country.

It has it's differences and that is great. If it didn't I would not have moved here.

Kind of saddens me when I see Farongs who have nothing good to say about Thailand but apparently they can not leave it and go to Burma.

[tmwke]

My German friend ran the Thai Airport link along with other Falang Nationalitys until in December Siems was given the boot.They had 1 months notice to leave,due to the fact that Siemes do not do business the Thai way ! Som nam na.

[JetsetBkk]

I'm sorry but I don't even understand this power-connecting carbon brush mechanism. What does it do? Can one of you technical wizzes dumb this down for me please. <snip>

Hey GK! If you really are geriatric, then you must remember dynamos - those things that used to charge your battery before they invented alternators with diode packs that kept blowing up.

And if you remember dynamos, you must remember having to change the carbon brushes that picked up power from something that was whizzing around and putting it in your battery.

I guess those old brushes did the same as these brushes that they need at swampy - connecting power to something that's spinning around.

I could be completely wrong of course.

[Time Traveller]

Classic.

Almost as good at the battery running out on the Tsumani detector...

I argue with anyone that says Thailand is not a 3^rdworld country. At least they run this country like one

givenall, do you dare open you mouth and prove to the world that you are a fool? If so, then please explain in what way exactly does Thailand classify as a 3rd world country (didn't people stop using that term 20 yrs ago?).

Thailand has for the most part excellent infrastructure, universal schooling and healthcare, extremely reliable electricity, water and other utilities for almost all of the country. It's people have a very high literacy rate 94%. It also has a reasonably high life expectancy - over 70 years, high scores on international indexes for female education and career opportunities

The economy has significant diversified industries with very low unemployment of less than 1%, it's inflation is quite low around 3%, the country has significantly large foreign exchange reserves and consistently exports more than it imports.

If you seriously think that this country is comparable with places like Afghanistan, India (I had to wait more than one year to have my home connected to a telephone land line!), Myanmar (even in Yangoon you are lucky if you have electricity for more than 12 hours a day), Bangladesh (half the people can't read or write), not to mention almost every country in Africa or even Cambodia and Laos.....and it you still believe Thailand is a 3rd world country, then get off this forum pack you bags and go back to your little safe haven whereever that is in the world. People read this forum for sensible discussion and your comments are just plain boring. But perhaps disparaging comments make you feel good by reassuring yourself how much better you are than anyone else?

[Mr Red]

Classic.

Almost as good at the battery running out on the Tsumani detector...

I argue with anyone that says Thailand is not a 3^rdworld country. At least they run this country like one

givenall, do you dare open you mouth and prove to the world that you are a fool? If so, then please explain in what way exactly does Thailand classify as a 3rd world country (didn't people stop using that term 20 yrs ago?).

Thailand has for the most part excellent infrastructure, universal schooling and healthcare, extremely reliable electricity, water and other utilities for almost all of the country. It's people have a very high literacy rate 94%. It also has a reasonably high life expectancy - over 70 years, high scores on international indexes for female education and career opportunities

The economy has significant diversified industries with very low unemployment of less than 1%, it's inflation is quite low around 3%, the country has significantly large foreign exchange reserves and consistently exports more than it imports.

If you seriously think that this country is comparable with places like Afghanistan, India (I had to wait more than one year to have my home connected to a telephone land line!), Myanmar (even in Yangoon you are lucky if you have electricity for more than 12 hours a day), Bangladesh (half the people can't read or write), not to mention almost every country in Africa or even Cambodia and Laos.....and it you still believe Thailand is a 3rd world country, then get off this forum pack you bags and go back to your little safe haven whereever that is in the world. People read this forum for sensible discussion and your comments are just plain boring. But perhaps disparaging comments make you feel good by reassuring yourself how much better you are than anyone else?

Well said, TimeTraveler!! Can't wait until I move there -- 9 more months.

[roamer]

Classic.

Almost as good at the battery running out on the Tsumani detector...

I argue with anyone that says Thailand is not a 3^rdworld country. At least they run this country like one

givenall, do you dare open you mouth and prove to the world that you are a fool? If so, then please explain in what way exactly does Thailand classify as a 3rd world country (didn't people stop using that term 20 yrs ago?).

Thailand has for the most part excellent infrastructure, universal schooling and healthcare, extremely reliable electricity, water and other utilities for almost all of the country. It's people have a very high literacy rate 94%. It also has a reasonably high life expectancy - over 70 years, high scores on international indexes for female education and career opportunities

The economy has significant diversified industries with very low unemployment of less than 1%, it's inflation is quite low around 3%, the country has significantly large foreign exchange reserves and consistently exports more than it imports.

If you seriously think that this country is comparable with places like Afghanistan, India (I had to wait more than one year to have my home connected to a telephone land line!), Myanmar (even in Yangoon you are lucky if you have electricity for more than 12 hours a day), Bangladesh (half the people can't read or write), not to mention almost every country in Africa or even Cambodia and Laos.....and it you still believe Thailand is a 3rd world country, then get off this forum pack you bags and go back to your little safe haven whereever that is in the world. People read this forum for sensible discussion and your comments are just plain boring. But perhaps disparaging comments make you feel good by reassuring yourself how much better you are than anyone else?

Whilst I would not necessarily agree with givenall I would be equally disinclined to agree with someone who clearly believes the statistics he quotes are an accurate representation of Thailand. In fact if you gave me your statistics and asked me to name the country, I think I would be inclined to think you were talking about a nation that was far more economically and socially developed than the Thailand I know and love. More akin to Sweden or New Zealand, Oh wait, they fall down on the unemployment rates, much higher, foreign exchange reserves much lower, worse on inflation. Maybe the true miracle is how Thailand manages all this despite being about 80th on world corruption indexes whilst Sweden or New Zealand are within the top 5. Remarkable. Thailand or Shangri-La

Edited March 30, 2011 by roamer

[gk10002000]

I hate to say this, but how typically Thailand...

How long's the service been running since the start now, six months or so???

And they already have train parts wearing out, supposedly because of some faulty design on the rail line itself at the airport...

Strange though...because they test ran the trains for quite some time at the beginning... and after that they've been running a full regular schedule for several months now...

So why is this maintenance problem just surfacing now... Or it took them some months to work their way thru their entire supply of replacement parts without doing anything proactive to resolve the problemms???

Of course, you gotta wonder why the Thai folks running the line let it deteriorate to the point where they had to pull the trains out of service and cancel operations...

You mean to tell me.... they didn't know this problem was coming far enough ahead of time to sort out the spare parts problem before it got critical??? Hard to imagine...

But then again, TIT.

(PS - Just wait till the same thing happens with spare parts for Thailand's (possible) future nuclear power plants... OOOPS..... Call Germany QUICK!!!!)

They probably ran the trains around a loop or back and forth but did not cycle them through the tunnel enough. Seems odd that the tunnel design messes up the brushes so much. Must be some weird crossover area or something. Sloppy engineering.

[Phatcharanan]

No post's expressing surprise or shock then?

[Time Traveller]

Whilst I would not necessarily agree with givenall I would be equally disinclined to agree with someone who clearly believes the statistics he quotes are an accurate representation of Thailand. In fact if you gave me your statistics and asked me to name the country, I think I would be inclined to think you were talking about a nation that was far more economically and socially developed than the Thailand I know and love. More akin to Sweden or New Zealand, Oh wait, they fall down on the unemployment rates, much higher, foreign exchange reserves much lower, worse on inflation. Maybe the true miracle is how Thailand manages all this despite being about 80th on world corruption indexes whilst Sweden or New Zealand are within the top 5. Remarkable. Thailand or Shangri-La

The statistics I've quoted are from CIA factbook and wikipedia. If you don't think those are reliable of an overall true representation than I'm amazed that you go on to quote another statistic on corruption indexes. Singapore I believe is the best on that index, yet it's literacy rate is basically the same as Thailand! My point is that you can't base a view on one figure and that overall Thailand is pretty good for liveability, I was responding to givenall's remark and was not comparing Thailand with countries like Sweden and NZ.

[lapoon]

Why not blame Siemens, their the experts.

I remember the trouble in Melbourne when they took over the water board, would not buy spares !!!

[Nisa]

In the long term, Siemens must solve the quick wearing down of the carbon brushes, which is caused by the problem in the tunnel design at Suvarnabhumi station. (MCOT online news)

I wonder what "problem" they are referring. Is this a problem with translation or did Siemens not consider the tunnel design when building and/or deploying the trains?

Edited March 30, 2011 by Nisa

[toenail]

Timetraveler said:

givenall, do you dare open you mouth and prove to the world that you are a fool? If so, then please explain in what way exactly does Thailand classify as a 3rd world country (didn't people stop using that term 20 yrs ago?).

Thailand has for the most part excellent infrastructure, universal schooling and healthcare, extremely reliable electricity, water and other utilities for almost all of the country. It's people have a very high literacy rate 94%. It also has a reasonably high life expectancy - over 70 years, high scores on international indexes for female education and career opportunities

The economy has significant diversified industries with very low unemployment of less than 1%, it's inflation is quite low around 3%, the country has significantly large foreign exchange reserves and consistently exports more than it imports.

If you seriously think that this country is comparable with places like Afghanistan, India (I had to wait more than one year to have my home connected to a telephone land line!), Myanmar (even in Yangoon you are lucky if you have electricity for more than 12 hours a day), Bangladesh (half the people can't read or write), not to mention almost every country in Africa or even Cambodia and Laos.....and it you still believe Thailand is a 3rd world country, then get off this forum pack you bags and go back to your little safe haven whereever that is in the world. People read this forum for sensible discussion and your comments are just plain boring. But perhaps disparaging comments make you feel good by reassuring yourself how much better you are than anyone else?

****************************************

True, we Westerners have forgotten how much rapid progress the country has made the pass 40 years and when you compare Thailand with its neighbors such as Cambodia, Burma, and Laos it even looks "more developed". And yes, there will always be other South Eastern countries (such as Singapore) that will be more developed due to its history and ethnic make-up. BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel the Thais who are powerful in government positions should have expectations of a "developed" country, not one of a developing country. Its goal should always be one step ahead of the game. --So why wouldn't someone have spare parts in stock? Who is doing the inventory??

One of the biggest handicaps this country has now is not its infrastructure but its educational system. According to what I have read, it lack skilled graduates to take over the new 21 Century jobs...the schools in the North and Isaan are not creating students with a high school education, not creating ones who can "think" independently.... Towering buildings, highways, and electricity is impressive but a hidden factor in development is having decent educations system creating those who can "think out of the box".