Two trains derail on May Day: Thailand

[RubbaJohnny]

Amazing how these old buffers de -couple guilt from failure.

Of course lacking a lucky Jatukom or whistle it may all be down to the bogey man,or heaven forfend a slope on the line.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

But maintenance has completed almost five months and derailment also happened many times. Even on the first day of the test run the security of the line, the train also derailed and he was on that train.

Obviously, the SRT folks did a right fine job with their rail line repairs on the northern line....

[Ricardo]

In the dozen or more "derailment threads" on TV in the last year, it has been revealed that the cause has already been investigated and confirmed: Over the last 40-50 years or so, rail maintenance has been carried out by using sub-standard quality steel rails purchased from China.

Now, the "birds are coming home to roost."

Think about that the next time you buy Chinese-made pet food, human food, toothpaste, powdered milk products, etc.--all of which have been derailed as well in consumptive products scandals over the last decade.

Probably the safest thing Thailand could do would be to rebuild the Bamboo Wall, and pay a little more from exporting countries that have adequate quality control as well as greater value for human life.

It's worn out, the carriages are broken the tracks need relaid the points need replaced. Go take the train journey and see for yourself.

If only the government had some sort of infrastructure program to replace all these garbage railways, with twin tracks to reduce the points, and a planned route to join the ends of Thailand up....

Oh right, they did all that and the Democrats got their coup friends to block it.

Back in the real world, the SRT have had just such a plan underway for several years, since long before PTP (or before them the Dems) were in-power.

It's going slowly because it's underfunded, nothing new about that then, and many would also question the SRT's overall management-skills too.

The PTP's plans to put a 2.2-trillion-Baht millstone round the taxpayers' necks, with minimal/no oversight, was partly planning to accelerate this scheme and run slightly-faster trains over it, all dressed up as being a totally-new (which it's not !) High-Speed Rail network (which wasn't what the Chinese wanted to build anyway) which looked good at election-time, but had/has enormous potential for corruption.

I suspect that many of the Dems' backers are also in favour, because they'd expect to benefit themselves, none of this is any reason for massive over-borrowing/spending on projects (including rail-track dualling) whose pay-back is yet-to-be-demonstrated.

The various infrastructure-spending plans (roads, rail, ports, airports, etc.) ,should IMO be broken-down, examined & justified individually, funded properly (no 50-year zero-coupon bonds please !) and carried out with full proper oversight, but how likely is any of that in Thailand ? !

[BillyBobThai]

One good thing to come out of this, is that the maintenance crew has been getting quite a lot of experience putting cars back on the tracks.

[art vandelay]

with the standard of maintenance and upkeep of infrastructure here cant wait for the high speed trains.