Chiang Mai train bound for Bangkok derails
The Nation



CHIANG MAI: -- A Bangkok-bound train from Chiang Mai derailed in Lampang yesterday morning, but there were no casualties.

Somchai Kongchuensin, a senior official of the State Railway of Thailand, said there were 80 passengers on the train at the time of the accident.

He said the derailment happened at 6.35am in Lampang's Hang Chat district. More than 50 officials and engineers rushed to the scene to put the diesel locomotive back on its tracks. More than three hours passed before the locomotive and its 10 carriages were ready to resume operations.

A new locomotive was coupled at the next station to bring the 10 carriages to Bangkok.

Somchai said relevant officials would investigate the derailment further to determine the exact cause.


-- The Nation 2013-08-24

Another one? Just how bad is this track?

UGH! Yet another one? This is stunningly bad news and reflects very poorly on the country. I took this train not 6 weeks ago. There have been I think 3 derailments since then. Such an acute problem should be addressed with urgency. Urgency . . . not something I would anticipate will happen though.

Just more fruit from the poison tree.

Getting bored of this headline.

Can't wait to see:

"Train makes it from Bangkok to Chiamg mai without being derailed."

How many derailments is this, 6 in 5 weeks? Come Thailand surely you can now see there is a serious problem. Forget about the tourist baht and put peoples lives 1st. CLOSE the bloody line, indefinitely suspend all operation until the system is fixed properly. People are going to die and Thailand couldn't care less, what is a few dead farangs, more will come.

Edited August 24, 201312 yr by chooka

Instead of the publicity stunt of a " secret " train journey to Surin, accompanied by a news crew, the Transport Minister needs to set about SRT and remind them the main function of a railway is to keep the train on the tracks and they are failing miserably.

Could be something new for TAT slogan........Unlikely to be in a train wreck in your own country ? then Thailand is the place for you.

If you wanted to persuade a skeptical public that massive investment is needed in a shiny new high speed rail system what better way than to have multiple incidents on the existing system.

Signed A.Cynic.

There were no casualties. Why is it that a Thai news story never, ever includes an interview with some of the passengers?

If you wanted to persuade a skeptical public that massive investment is needed in a shiny new high speed rail system what better way than to have multiple incidents on the existing system.

Signed A.Cynic.

Thailand is definitely not ready for high speed rail. They don't even have the experience to handle model train sets.

There were no casualties. Why is it that a Thai news story never, ever includes an interview with some of the passengers?

That has the potential to tarnish Thailands tourism which will result in the loss of revenue.

i would rather lick dogs pee off stinging nettles than take a train in Thailand

Don't worry the Transport Minister said the toilets would be upgraded within a month!

Lucky for them that they don't have the high speed bullet train that they 'say' their going to build. Could be hundreds dead. The trains here remind me of the old folks that you see in the moobaan wobbling all over the roads on their old Chineese bicycles.

Is this the 5th or 6th in a month; on the same section of tracks...Actually, it's kind of harmless & cute; we tease the rail staff by saying it is a good thing we do NOT have hi-speed trains in Thailand, where you just get another smoking break, having already slowed to 15 kph rather than like in Spain or China where they KILL you (and IF you're lucky enough to be derailed in a tunnel, you can be additionally assured it will not tip over as a bonus!!!). IF you've ever ridden these trains, you KNOW where the bad sections of track are...the one in Lampang has /got/ to wake up anyone NOT comatose <machung-machong-machung-machong>...for an hour @ 4:00am going North); so these derailments are GOOD for State Railway of Thailand: they serve as gentle prompts to repair track lengths...one train-wreck after the other, one train-length at a time...at this rate, the tracks certainly will be repaired inside of 4 years? No? ;-} rap.

Edited August 24, 201312 yr by RickeyParkany

Is this the 5th or 6th in a month; on the same section of tracks...Actually, it's kind of harmless & cute; we tease the rail staff by saying it is a good thing we do NOT have hi-speed trains in Thailand, where you just get another smoking break, having already slowed to 15 kph rather than like in Spain or China where they KILL you (and IF you're lucky enough to be derailed in a tunnel, you can be additionally assured it will not tip over as a bonus!!!). IF you've ever ridden these trains, you KNOW where the bad sections of track are...the one in Lampang has /got/ to wake up anyone NOT comatose <machung-machong-machung-machong>...for an hour @ 4:00am going North); so these derailments are GOOD for State Railway of Thailand: they serve as gentle prompts to repair track lengths...one train-wreck after the other, one train-length at a time...at this rate, the tracks certainly will be repaired inside of 4 years? No? ;-} rap.

TrainWreck.jpg

I think they will run out of carriages before they fix the tracks.

It's the monsoon season up North, so you get all sorts of minor subsidence, which clearly gives problems for the existing ill-maintained partly-logging-line built-on-the-cheap, but so long as nobody gets injured then so what ?

But the idea of trying to run a high-speed heavy-use line beyond Uttaradit, where it enters the mountains, has been rejected even by the pork-barrel politicians, which is why their vaunted 'Bangkok-Chiangmai Hi-Speed line' is planned to end well-short of Chiangmai, leaving the harder part to be built sometime later (if ever) by private-enterprise.

The sensible option would be to continue (perhaps speed-up) the already-underway track-doubling, and start maintaining existing lines/rolling-stock better, and stop pretending that this equates to some sort of Brave-New-World, or that it gives the Chinese what they want, a heavy-freight line from southern-China to Singapore (which just happens to run through Thailand) to speed their exports towards their markets.

But that won't give as many brown-envelopes, or involve 50-year loans, for the taxpayers to shoulder.

Edited August 24, 201312 yr by Ricardo

Since the trains dont want to stay on the track, maybe its best to just take out the tracks, and put rubber wheels on the trains.

Got to love this comment,

"Somchai said relevant officials would investigate the derailment further to determine the exact cause".

They conduct weekly investigations into derailments, haven't they determined what is making these trains derail yet? Time to call in some outside help as it appears the idiots have absolutely no idea what they are doing. The end result of buying your degrees.

"F" Troop at their finest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dUolPUFEpZo

Edited August 24, 201312 yr by chooka

And just when we thought the priority was to get running water in the third class toilets, this happens.

Amazing! Simply amazing! ...and very sad!

Maybe a good time for Thailand to invest money in rail and trains ....

The monsoon subsidence issue is managed by the Chinese by using a reinforced concrete foundation end to end and not allowing freight trains to use high speed passenger lines. I recently traveled on the G80 from Guangzhou in the South to Beijing in the North, 2,298 Klms in the posted time of 7 Hrs and 59 minutes, exactly on time with four stops, very very impressive.

The rail maintenance machinery used bt the Chinese is state of the art and every single bullet train is fitted with trip monitoring equipment and every trip is computer checked for anomolies.

Sent from my GT-P7500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Another one? Just how bad is this track?

Stop bashing Thailand.

95 per cent of the track is perfectly safe. It's just the other 5 per cent that's likely to throw the train onto it's side at any time.

You know what, it really would not surprise me if at least the latest few of these derailments (ie the ones where nobody is hurt and the train is going really slow) were deliberately "engineered" by someone with a financial interest in either pushing for a new railway line, or the closure of the line in order that people/freight would have to go elsewhere.

Actually, freight trains tend to manage fine without falling off the lines, perhaps because they are heavier.

My understanding is that all the fuel for northern fuel stations (except lpg/ngv) travels by train freight, can anyone confirm or deny this ?

The monsoon subsidence issue is managed by the Chinese by using a reinforced concrete foundation end to end and not allowing freight trains to use high speed passenger lines. I recently traveled on the G80 from Guangzhou in the South to Beijing in the North, 2,298 Klms in the posted time of 7 Hrs and 59 minutes, exactly on time with four stops, very very impressive.

The rail maintenance machinery used bt the Chinese is state of the art and every single bullet train is fitted with trip monitoring equipment and every trip is computer checked for anomolies.

Sent from my GT-P7500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

How unfortunate, so unlucky to have so many punctures in a few weeks.

The investigation will be made into this comprising of all cabinet members and rail officials at a remote paradise island so they can think clearly. The trip will be for 1 week giving ample time and the findings will be made public in 6 months.

It's been raining long and hard in the north the past few weeks (surprise, it's rainy season ;-) which is why/when you get most rail problems year-round and it always seems to be in the hilly northern part of the line between Uttaradit and Lampang. Anyone remember that sinkhole two years back?

Another one? Just how bad is this track?

It would appear that it could not be worse.

And the idiots are promoting a 'super fast train' whilst they cannot get a 'super slow one' to stay on the tracks.

And it has occurred at different locations so it is not just a troublesome section of track.

When it comes to lunatics they have few peers

Another one? Just how bad is this track?

Stop bashing Thailand.

95 per cent of the track is perfectly safe. It's just the other 5 per cent that's likely to throw the train onto it's side at any time.

LoL. Yeah, one in every twenty sections.