First High Speed Railway Will Be Launched In Chiang Mai In 3 Years

[webfact]

First high speed railway will be launched in Chiang Mai in 3 years

CHIANG MAI, 10 January 2013 (NNT)-The Governor of Chiang Mai said the first high speed railway service in Thailand will be launched between Bangkok and Chiangmai; the project is expected to be completed in 3 years.

According to the report, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has approved the high speed railway project called Northern Land Port, which was presented to her by Chiang Mai Governor Mr. Thanin Supasan.

It is said that the completion of the high speed railway will turn Chiang Mai into a transportation and logistics hub in the Northern region. The rail service is expected to be ready for use no later than 2017.

Other transport facilities such as ring roads and airports will also be improved to accommodate the upcoming ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.

-- NNT 2013-01-10

[Paagai]

Yingluck and Thanin, or was it Hansel and Gretel? Perhaps the high speed line will be finished in time to link in with the new Chiang Mai metro system

Edited January 10, 2013 by Paagai

[rubl]

Completed in three years, expected to be ready for use no later than 2017. So, starting 2015 and finishing 31st of December 2017?

Is this a follow-up on the 2012-12-08 article which had

"Thailand is planning to run Chinese-made High-speed railway systems designed to have time-saving, inexpensive trains for long-distance commuters shuttling between Bangkok and the northern city of Chiang Mai and between the capital and northeastern province of Nong Khai.

...

Construction of the initial stage of the railway project for the Bangkok-Chiang Mai route is scheduled to begin by the middle or second half of next year. The railway project for both routes will be completed until 2015."

http://www.thaivisa....railway-system/BTW did the expected budget required change much? it was "Bangkok-Chiang Mai route estimated at US$10 billion"

[BookMan]

Bingo! Another hub!

It is said that the completion of the high speed railway will turn Chiang Mai into a transportation and logistics hub in the Northern region.

Edited January 10, 2013 by BookMan

[laurentbkk]

Good luck ..... I think plane will still be the best option and the more secure .

[KarstenBoAndersen]

Why to Chiang Mai first ???

The big need is to Nong Khai for cargo !

Then will there be hole all the way up to China for high speed trains with cargo.

But it takes min. 10 years to make such a track, it is a huge construction, all roads have to diverted over or under the tracks.

Take a look here http://nexus.umn.edu/papers/HighSpeedRail.pdf

677 KM of track would cost 290 Billion Baht !!!!

So they are dreaming !

The cost for making it in USA and here is not much difference, only labor cost is lower, all machines, fuel etc, cost the same.

[Paagai]

Bingo! Another hub!

It is said that the completion of the high speed railway will turn Chiang Mai into a transportation and logistics hub in the Northern region.

Quite some Hub. Brand new five star hotels in the city center. Brand new conference center a few km North West. Brand new airport built on you know who's land in Sangkampheng, More shopping Malls than Hong Kong. Brand new high speed railway link station in Lamphun (cos graft finished off the budget before they got to Chiang Mai ).

And the ONLY way to travel between them is sitting for two hours in stationery traffic. Perched on a wooden bench in the back of some clapped out old red pick up truck belching clouds of global warming CO₂ that does a tour of every market in Chiang Mai before arriving at your destination. Then the driver realises there are farangs on board so stops at a "lady massage" and jewelry shop en route just in case.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Paagai

[KarstenBoAndersen]

If you read further on, can you see average cost per KM. is 100 Million Baht !

This survey is from 94 and nothing had gone down in price !

The way they can get a lot of the financing is, when they sell all the land, where the old railway is located on, it is downtown in most cities, so very high priced.

[kotsak]

I am sure they will have figured out what the lunch boxes will be by then..

[LawrenceChee]

it will never happen in 3 years.....impossible...bu ke neng (impossible in Mandarin) :-) !

In 3 years, I bet we will have a mall built next to a railway track called Railway Mall with 6 massage shops and a new 3D movie ride simulating the ride to Bangkok...right in MBK Centre !

[Rob8891]

"Launching" rail service?" "Northern Land Port?" Oh God, it's not a rail service, it's long-tail boats on the Ping.

Running by 2017.... yeah rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrright.

[chaoyang]

Well, my hope is that when and if this rail line is "launched" it will not indeed become airborne. The thought of a Thai-maintained high-speed rail link actually gives me the cold chills. The Chinese trains are quite possibly good, but will they be installed with ALL of the needed safety features? With the double corruption that will be needed to do this deal -- we've got both Chinese and Thais that will need to be greased -- costs are going to have to be shaved somewhere.

The high-speed train disaster near Shanghai was reportedly caused because anti-expansion additives in the concrete bridge (costly compound from Japan) were not used to shave off funds for various pockets. What helps mitigate the danger in China is that people could get executed for deadly corruption-related accidents. In Thailand they might be promoted to a higher position

[sprq]

More fantasy. To be completed in three years! Cloud cuckoo land. They haven't even put the bids out yet, and perhaps never will. It all depends, any way, on who can rake how much off of it, not on any practical need.

[MILT]

I would have thought that they would have used Japanese technology for this project. Chinese???? I'll drive when I want to go to Babylon oh I mean Bangkok.

[Lancelot]

More fantasy. To be completed in three years! Cloud cuckoo land. They haven't even put the bids out yet, and perhaps never will. It all depends, any way, on who can rake how much off of it, not on any practical need.

Common, don't be that way. Remember the recent decree that all police would be fluent in english with in six months?

So it is spoken; so it is done

[asdecas]

I remember the November 1986 accident at Hualampong, when five people were killed after an unmanned train hit the buffers at 50km/h. I would have serious reservations about taking this new, high-speed train, given the number of derailments in the past caused by lack of maintenance to the permanent way; even with new track, imagine how much longer the casualty list might be at four or five times the speed. No thanks.

Edited January 11, 2013 by asdecas

[Baloo22]

It is said that the completion of the high speed railway will turn Chiang Mai into a transportation and logistics hub in the Northern region.

Quite some Hub. Brand new five star hotels in the city center. Brand new conference center a few km North West. Brand new airport built on you know who's land in Sangkampheng, More shopping Malls than Hong Kong. Brand new high speed railway link station in Lamphun (cos graft finished off the budget before they got to Chiang Mai ).

And the ONLY way to travel between them is sitting for two hours in stationery traffic. Perched on a wooden bench in the back of some clapped out old red pick up truck belching clouds of global warming CO₂ that does a tour of every market in Chiang Mai before arriving at your destination. Then the driver realises there are farangs on board so stops at a "lady massage" and jewelry shop en route just in case.

Exactly!! All this talk about High-Speed Rail system and yet they can't seem to get a working intra-city bus system established in Chiang Mai. Heck, they could even save some money by simply refurbishing the bus stops all along Huay Kaew road. Some of them would only require a good cleaning of the seats!

[Fgis]

3 years ! hahahaha

The first one that will bee launched is actually BKK - UDON because China will manage the project, or Thai would need 10 years to do it !

Anyway I still think that the most profitable fast train will be the one to Pattaya and as soon as an investor will put the money it will be lauched within few years.

[canuckamuck]

If it's finished in 3 years, I will try it out in 4 - maybe.

[bumpkin]

Well, my hope is that when and if this rail line is "launched" it will not indeed become airborne. The thought of a Thai-maintained high-speed rail link actually gives me the cold chills. The Chinese trains are quite possibly good, but will they be installed with ALL of the needed safety features? With the double corruption that will be needed to do this deal -- we've got both Chinese and Thais that will need to be greased -- costs are going to have to be shaved somewhere.

The high-speed train disaster near Shanghai was reportedly caused because anti-expansion additives in the concrete bridge (costly compound from Japan) were not used to shave off funds for various pockets. What helps mitigate the danger in China is that people could get executed for deadly corruption-related accidents. In Thailand they might be promoted to a higher position

and there have been other less well publicised 'incidents' apart from the Wenzhou accident. Some have been linked to failures in the signalling system. But the interesting pointer from China, is that their HSR system is greatly underused, because of the high cost of travel compared to the alternatives.

Do the Thai government expect to subsidise HSR travel ?

[kaptainrob]

Sort of on topic ...

Are there any major rail construction or repair projects under way in CM province? Whilst heading back home from Phitsanulok I passed at least a dozen semi's carrying long-loads of railway track.

[MESmith]

Sort of on topic ...

Are there any major rail construction or repair projects under way in CM province? Whilst heading back home from Phitsanulok I passed at least a dozen semi's carrying long-loads of railway track.

Not wasting time, are they

[Tanaka]

Why to Chiang Mai first ???

The big need is to Nong Khai for cargo !

Then will there be hole all the way up to China for high speed trains with cargo.

But it takes min. 10 years to make such a track, it is a huge construction, all roads have to diverted over or under the tracks.

Take a look here http://nexus.umn.edu...ghSpeedRail.pdf

677 KM of track would cost 290 Billion Baht !!!!

So they are dreaming !

The cost for making it in USA and here is not much difference, only labor cost is lower, all machines, fuel etc, cost the same.

Why to Chiang Mai first? You do not know that the PM, her brother <snip> are from there, do you?

Edited January 12, 2013 by mcgriffith
inflammatory content removed

[LaoPo]

Why to Chiang Mai first ???

The big need is to Nong Khai for cargo !

Then will there be hole all the way up to China for high speed trains with cargo.

But it takes min. 10 years to make such a track, it is a huge construction, all roads have to diverted over or under the tracks.

Take a look here http://nexus.umn.edu...ghSpeedRail.pdf

677 KM of track would cost 290 Billion Baht !!!!

So they are dreaming !

The cost for making it in USA and here is not much difference, only labor cost is lower, all machines, fuel etc, cost the same.

From your report in December 1996...16 years Old

"This paper examines the full costs, defined as the sum of private

and social costs, of a high-speed rail system proposed for a corridor connecting

Los Angeles and San Francisco in California."

Edited January 11, 2013 by LaoPo

[notime]

Great plan! "Inexpensive" high speed trains in 3 years. So I hope that the chicken farmers from CM will be able to hop on the high-speed train and bring their fresh eggs to Bangkok few hours earlier

[callao]

I think they should do the short BKK Pattaya/ Rayong first, could have it up and running and test the system well before CM or NK ever get finished, just getting a dedicated double? track in and out of Bangkok looks like a nightmare