Train service to Chiang Mai stopped September 16 for major repairs.

[khwaibah]

Sila Art Station during Sept 16-Oct 31 to Solve Train Derail problem.

Major overhaul of 300km of rail ltrack from Uttaradit's Sila Art station to Chiang Mai during Sept 16-Oct 31 to solve train derail problem.

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By English News | 6 Sep 2,556th four twenty-one p.m. | 21 views |. View Comment.

Major overhaul of 300km of rail ltrack from Uttaradit's Sila Art station to Chiang Mai during Sept 16-Oct 31 to solve train derail problem.

Mods move if warranted.

[MESmith]

at Saraphi station they have piles of new concrete sleepers to renew the old wooden ones. Hopefully they will be doing the same in the mountains. Better to do a total rebuild at a wider gauge....

[Choonpon]

About time.....

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Edited September 6, 2013 by Choonpon

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Here's The Nation's post... But it appears to be talking about a different time period.

Major train maintenance planned

September 6, 2013 3:12 pm

The State Railway of Thailand is undertaking a major maintenance on the northern train services in November.

SRT governor Prapat Chongsanguan said that some parts of the track in the North would be closed for fixing. He attributed the frequent derailment along the route to heavy rain and landslides last year.

After a meeting with SRT officials, he said that the train agency is trying to fix the problem.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Major-train-maintenance-planned-30214284.html

Edited September 6, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[xen]

Have they allotted a timeframe for the work to be completed as it a big job to repair the whole section thru the mountains or are they only going to the bits they think are the worse and then wait for the other sections to become critical and do them? .

[webfact]

Uttaradit-Chiang Mai rail service closed for maintenance



BANGKOK, 7 September 2013 (NNT) – Uttaradit-Chiang Mai rail service will be closed for maintenance from September 16 – October 31. The decision came after a train has derailed while traveling through Phrae Province.

Governor of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) Prapat Chongsanguan disclosed that a 300-kilometer rail line from Sila-art station in Uttaradit to Chiang Mai will be closed for repair after a recent derailment in Phrae. He revealed that since the beginning of this year, there have been 13 derailments so far.

According to him, the maintenance will cost around 2.8 billion baht which will be spent on new sleepers and tracks as well as the replacement of soil with stone under the track along the route.

The governor also expressed his confidence that there would be no more derailments after the maintenance, adding that suspension of the rail service will help speed up the maintenance as the operation is expected to be complete by December 31st.

-- NNT 2013-09-07

[retell]

about 20 years overdue , but hey, it only took 13 derailments to discover that is was a bad track

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Nothing in Thailand ever gets completed on schedule....so be prepared for the line to be out of service potentially longer than promised.

But meanwhile, I don't follow the timing stated in the NNT release.

It says the rail service will be closed from mid-Sept. to end of Oct.

But then at the end says, the maintenance on the line isn't expected to be completed until end of December.

So if that's correct, they're proposing to resume running trains on the line while the maintenance work is still underway???

PS - Those guys at SRT, they catch on real fast... Only took 13 train derailments this year on that one line for them to figure out they needed to do something.

Edited September 7, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

BTW, they refer to the service being closed at Uttradit to Chiang Mai.

But if they close that section of rail, does that also mean the broader BKK to Chiang Mail rail out is down as well...at least in terms of a train taking you all the way into Chiang Mai???

[retell]

while they are busy there do they make the second track also would be logic thinking if they did so

[chooka]

Why wait a week, are they trying for another 1/2 dozen derailments 1st? close it now. It should have been closed 6 months ago.

[NancyL]

BTW, they refer to the service being closed at Uttradit to Chiang Mai.

But if they close that section of rail, does that also mean the broader BKK to Chiang Mail rail out is down as well...at least in terms of a train taking you all the way into Chiang Mai???

There is only one rail line between CM and Bangkok and it goes thru Uttradit. So if you can get to Uttradit, by some other means, you can get to Bangkok by rail from there.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Thanks Nancy... Being on the BKK end of things, I was thinking in the reverse.... being about potential BKK to Chiang Mai train trips.

So, as I suspected, what this news really means is that the broader BKK to Chiang Mai train service will be out for this period of time... unless folks want to disembark and Uttradit and go via roadway from there to Chiang Mai.

Not a whole lot of folks here planning BKK to Uttradit train trips, I suspect. But a lot of folks do the BKK-CM or CM-BKK train trips -- or at least, they used to.

I wonder if SRT is planning to offer any of their own continuation services between Uttradit and CM such as dedicated buses? In other words, you buy your ticket for the full train trip, and then SRT substitutes their own bus service for the Uttradit-CM service as part of the ticket. No mention of any such thing above, of course.

[Captain_Bob]

^^Really doubt they will cancel the whole northern line for this maintenance which comprises less than a third of the line. Most likely you will be able to get a train from Bangkok to Uttaradit where they will transfer to Chiang Mai by bus. SRT have typically laid on this type of service in similar situations.

Edited September 7, 2013 by Captain_Bob

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I see that the other newspaper reported in its article on the line closure that the SRT will provide buses to transport passengers from Uttaradit to destinations in Chiang Mai. So that's good news for travelers...kinda....

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Meanwhile, there was another really weird train derailment in BKK that injured two bystanders at the Thon Buri rail station....

Train service

Another train accident in Thon Buri

The Nation September 7, 2013 5:57 pm

SRT governor Prapat Chongsanguan, in white T-shirt, inspects the scene

A short-haul train encountered an accident at the Taladphu train station Saturday morning, injuring two persons.

Police and State Railway of Thailand governor Prapat Chongsanguan were at the station at 11.30am. The injured were taken to Samitivej Hospital Thonburi.

The third of four carriages of Train No. 4322 (Mahachai-Wong Wian Yai) hit the station roof. Train driver Jaru Kanchanaphan attributed the accident to the sinking of the rail track. The third carriage bounced and hit the roof.

Prapat said he would rush on tackling the problem that hurt the public train service. A number of train-related accidents have been reported this year.

He also promised that the SRT would take responsibility for the medical expenses for the injured.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Another-train-accident-in-Thon-Buri-30214373.html

I can't quite figure how a train jumps up to hit the roof of a train station. But The Nation photo above doesn't do the scene justice.

The BKK Post has a far more interesting photo accompanying their article that shows the top of the rail carriage all torn up/torn off and piles of concrete debris strewn all around.

It seems the two people injured were not passengers on the train but rather two women who were waiting at the train station when all the debris went flying.

Edited September 8, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

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