look how badly they manage the buses, cars, bikes and trucks.

then look at how terribly they design footpaths.

then look at how small business clambers over everything and u make something that requires planning & logic to will understand why the high speed rail plan is merely an excuse to rape for billions from public coffers.

if they cant even stop the police from murdering & extorting, how the eff can the expect to accomplish an actual feat of self reliance.?

how long have they had a skytrain, and have they yet started to make their own spare parts....nope

if the chinese dont hand it to them, and they cant trick a gullible western company into 'investing' NOTHING other than getting ass drunk & the subsequent atrocities would ever be accomplished here.

If it wasn't the home of the Shinawatra clan is the economic value of a separate high speed train coming to Chiang Mai worth the cost.

Probably not, IMO.

But one might make a case for investing the marginal-costs of a short new lower-speed branch-line into Chiang Mai, off any future double-track high-speed Chinese-designed/financed freight-railway, running between southern-China and Singapore via the outskirts of Bangkok.

One might thus obtain most of the benefits, at a much-reduced cost to Thailand, by piggy-backing off the main project.

Unfortunately the current single-track line, past Den Chai and Lampang, was built for low-speeds & steam-locomotives, basically as a logging-line & later to help link-in Lanna commercially/politically to central-Thailand & Bangkok. It includes steep grades (1-in-60/70 ?) and would not be suitable for high-speed operation. The problem with any cheaply-built line I suspect, is that it's likely to be slower & more-expensive, in long-term operation.

Which just about sums up the SRT's problems with its current network.