Third-class train cars not up to standard, says Transport Minister Chadchart

[hellodolly]

Probably the first politician to ever go on one of the trains. How a transport minister can only now just be seeing what 90% of the population have known and put up with daily for years is absurd. And any of the classes are substandard by modern requirements.

Have to admit he is trying to learn about the services in his jurisdiction. Hat's off to him.

Problem being if he learns to much they will replace him with another yes sir bozo.

10/10 for having the initiative to go see for himself. If he can actually get something done about it he will be Man Of The Year. alt=wai.gif width=20 height=20>

definatly a 10 out of 10 just hope the rest of the PTP will let him try to do his job properly.

Third-class train cars not up to standard, says Chadchart

First and second class are not up to standard either. In fact, all of SRT is not up to standard.

High speed trains are NOT the solution Thailand needs. A good modern standard gauge regular train system is what's needed.

High speed trains would be good . But due to the lackadaisical attitude of this government and all the proceeding ones it is now far more important to upgrade the present system to a reliable system as you have said.

Then and only then should they begin with the high speed rail. How ever by the tome they get to that point My grand children will be the beneficiary as I and my kids will have died of old age.

[JetsetBkk]

Next time, I hope Chadchart takes a train to the most popular island destination in Thailand - Phuket. What a lovely journey that will be passing though such towns as Prachuap Kiri Khan, Chumpon, Surat Thani and finally winding its way through the picturesque gorges of Phang Nga, over the new Sarasin bridge to stop next to the new Phuket Bus station, where he will be greeted by lines of tuk-tuk and taxi drivers holding up signs that read "Patong 50 baht", "Karon 60 baht" and "Rawai 70 baht" all including a free cold drink of your choice along the way, and ...

Geez, I must stop drinking this stuff.

[Thai at Heart]

Kudos to this minister for actually doing some leg work - he is an exception in PTP.

While the SRT management & unions are not blameless, the major problem with the SRT is that it has to run at a loss perpetually. Every government has refused to pay them a proper subsidy and keep the fares artificially low. All the company can try to do is fix problems as they occur.

Forget about pie-in-the-sky uneconomic HSR. Use a fair portion of the 2.2tn Baht to fully upgrade the existing network as per plans already laid out. This is urgent - far more than the self-serving priorities of the current mob.

The various political dinosaurs paid off so many consecutive governments to push road travel. Why do they subsidise diesel.

They are reaping the result of years of backhanders to intentionally neglect rail.

[anotheruser]

One thing is for certain , you don't need to be a brain , all the system is sub standard, they would need a complete make over in rail system operations and management , if and when they go up to fast train traffic.

High Speed train for Thailand? The infrastructure money now being proposed by the gov't should go to improving the existing transportation services, not the glorious high speed train some in the gov't think the country needs.

Currently, the Thai trains are struggling to just keep the routes running, often at the cost of safety. A decent budget to run the rail system will go a long way to restoring the confidence of Thailand's train lines.

Come on if it means a $7 billion dollar loan for Laos, what could go wrong?

[Bodrules]

I see that another derailment occurred on SRT, the BKK = CM special express train derailed in Lampang, So that's the 9^th this year, which indicates that the long term maintenance of the track / rolling sock has been run down so much that it will soon start into a failure cascade.

Having prices held for 20 years doesn't help much - so that begs the question - has the budget from Central Government increased, if so, by how much and then where has the money gone? On higher salaries and perks for the bosses? Swallowed by cost inflation? etc

[tezzainthailand]

I have found travelling ordinary second class is the best way to travel on the Thai rail system. Twice I have done the trip from Ayuthhaya to Khorat (that continues on to Ubon), open windows (natural aircon), comfortable seating facing the direction of travel, mountain scenery, regular and cheap food services and laid back passengers. Second class diesel car on the other hand I could never recommend to a first time traveller. Aircon set at freezing temperatures, a 50/50 chance of copping a seat facing away from the direction of travel, frosted or dirty windows very common (forget about taking photos), noisy and more expensive than ordinary second, all to save about an hour on a trip from Khorat to Udon Thani. Third Class is okay for a trip of no more than two hours....the Udon to Nong Khai 3rd class services for example I find more relaxing than the bus service between these two cities with a cost of no more than 30 baht.

[TheWizardofRnR]

Being a Train Advocate for most of my life , with many funny stories travelling cross-country in the USA , on the Mexican Train system , a few in England and the incredible speed trains in Europe. I can tell you the train rides here in Thailand compared to a few other countries use to be great fun ,if not top of the line carriages. Some of our trips became legendary , involving everything from Passports of a Japanese troublemaker being thrown out the trains window to drinking all the beer they had on board by 5 or 6 guys on a Visa run!

I remember Bernard Trink in the Bkk Post's Nite Owl column telling about within 5 years a train route connecting Phuket to Bkk via Surat Thani ,would be up and running.

Here it is 25 years later and we're still waiting!!!

It'd be so nice to see new equipment , upgraded trips in a 1st class or 2nd class modern seating to Pattaya that don't take 3-4 or more hours on a very un-comfortable 3rd class that really is a no-class carriages. Let's face it , with the amount of train accidents catching up with the Bus accidents, they may not have any trains left at all soon. Trains are just a great way to travel anywhere, I consider it a part of my holiday....on a good rail system ,that is ! BB