Airport Link needs urgent maintenance work: Samart
Pimnara Pradapwit
The Sunday Nation

BANGKOK: -- Former deputy Bangkok governor Samart Ratchaponsit yesterday urged the State Railway of Thailand board to launch a bid for contractors to carry out a major maintenance project for the Airport Link.

Samart, who was also a Democrat MP, said a section of track near the Hua Mark Station was eroded and several metal springs pinning track at a curve between the Lat Krabang and Suvarnabhumi stations were in a bad condition.

He said that could pose a safety threat to passengers and train employees.

Samart said he also urged the SRT, on July 19 and August 11, to do a thorough maintenance check of Airport Link trains when they reach the one million-kilometre mark in terms of distance travelled.

He said the board resolved last September to conduct a Bt300 million maintenance project and launch a bid for the work to be done but that never happened.

Instead, the board is due to meet on Tuesday to hire a company to carry out the work at a cost of Bt386 million.

Samart urged the board to organise a bid in order to have several strong choices and get the work done at an appropriate price.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Airport-Link-needs-urgent-maintenance-work-Samart-30241092.html

-- The Nation 2014-08-17

Tell me the old, old story.

Regular maintenance ?

Flucking about with safety issues!

And if a train did derail....it's not going to be pretty. The track is what, 10 metre up, most of it's length.

As we all know , maintenance is not part of the Thai vocabulary,

So last September an 300 mil. contract was up for tender for maintenance work......which did'nt happen....now there's a 380 mil. job on the go......something smells fishy about all this....

Any wonder that this state enterprise is nothing short of a disaster.

A derailment at that height would be catastrophic.....and it would be due, most likely, to maintenance issues, if it were to happen.

Guess who's getting the contract?

Someone close to the in charge?

Hopefully it gets done properly, not like the condos being built in Phatum Thani

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Tell me the old, old story.

Regular maintenance ?

it's only been operating, what, couple of years and they are talking about a dual h/s rail system, I think strong Expat participation would be a good idea here if the High speed go's ahead.

Maintenance should be at least a twice yearly event. The motor show is held more than twice a year.

Guess who's getting the contract?

Someone close to the in charge?

And would you agree, that was probably equally true, of the previous proposal agreed last September ?

Why didn't it happen, incompetence or lack-of-funds, would you say ?

Guess who's getting the contract?

Someone close to the in charge?

And would you agree, that was probably equally true, of the previous proposal agreed last September ?

Why didn't it happen, incompetence or lack-of-funds, would you say ?

History shall repeat. What the Airport Link is facing, SRT has faced, and is still facing. Both are government owned, and are showing class A management...:-o

Flucking about with safety issues!

And if a train did derail....it's not going to be pretty. The track is what, 10 metre up, most of it's length.

And the rest - 20 metres +, more like

Problem with pillar concrete, well it seem that a new corrupt case will be rise soon......

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Hopefully it gets done properly, not like the condos being built in Phatum Thani

...it's the same builder....no worries.

Little wonder they cancelled the express service. As it is the city line is always packed to the rafters with commuters as well as those bound for BKK

As we all know , maintenance is not part of the Thai vocabulary,

And some of us know that it is. Problem is it isn't done very often.

maintenance.

การรักษาสภาพ -- gaan rák-săa sà-pâap

They shouldn't be getting involved in postponing this type of stuff because they fancy it.

Its an elevated track for gods sake. The mess can be catastrophic. Just get on with the maintenenace have done with it.

Start firing some people.

If the management is not capable of understanding the seriousness of people's lives, they can go clean toilets.

Holy crap, i just came home fron the airport and was complaining to my wife on line that the train was going so slow through hua mak. I said how could thd service be getting so bad so fast. After hua mak, we were going at normal speed, but then there was a very loud bang followed by another. For sure the train hit some things. Who knows what though.

Get the Thais out of the way and hire a foreign firm to come in to look it over. Someone with real experience without a reputation for cutting corners.

Holy crap, i just came home fron the airport and was complaining to my wife on line that the train was going so slow through hua mak. I said how could thd service be getting so bad so fast. After hua mak, we were going at normal speed, but then there was a very loud bang followed by another. For sure the train hit some things. Who knows what though.

Actually, that's been there since day 1

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An educated guess:

The money for the maintenance was prepared and set aside, but then - in a very strange way - disappeared. Right into the pocket of the top guys of the Airport Link,- just before they were sent to inactive posts by the new strong men.

I wonder why there is never a way to get this kind of fraudulent money back from these kind of guys...

Holy crap, i just came home fron the airport and was complaining to my wife on line that the train was going so slow through hua mak. I said how could thd service be getting so bad so fast. After hua mak, we were going at normal speed, but then there was a very loud bang followed by another. For sure the train hit some things. Who knows what though.

Actually, that's been there since day 1

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I don't think it was the usual noise you hear on a train of the couplings smacking together. It seemed more of a thud,like something hit the frame of the car. There wasn't the moving to and fro of the car either. Seemed like something was kicked up and hit the side of the train, but i don't know.

Look to US BART same as BTS Except maintained way better travels further track are checked nightly.

BTS is another awful company. Last week on my way out to the airport I was at Phayathai station. Needed to cross the road at access the airport train from the bts station. It was 11:30 pm but the station was of course closed down, all the gates closed. I suppose the gates closer to the intersection way down at the other end were open, but the transfer from bts to arl was closed! there were still trains passing overhead and the arl trains run until 00:02. What the hell bts?

Boy !!! Suppose the general public using the trains have no idea abt whats going on under their feet !!

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