Thai Transport Ministry puts dual-track rail on the table

[belg]

guess in the future we will see a train derail on a daily / weekly basis then ...

[Jip66]

How can a train run on a table?

My old Hornby set fitted on my mums kitchen table just perfectly

[Estrada]

The Northern line, Bangkok to Changmai, was built in 1891/2 in standard guage. In 1919 politicians interfered and it was decided that all future tracks would only be 1 metre guage. Meanwhile in the UK in 1938, the Mallard 4468 Steam Engine broke the World Speed record at 201.6km/h on standard guage tracks. UK trains have largely been operating safely at that maximum speed ever since. In Thailand they refer to 200km/h as high speed, however the definition of high speed trains are trains operating in excess of 250km/h. Now the politicians want to interfere again and reduce the train speeds from 200km/h to only 160km/h when they should be operating at 250km/h. The only reason I see for this, is the competition between high speed trains and domestic air travel. They do not want trains that can travel from Bangkok to Changmai in 2 1/2hrs when the total time it takes by air, including check-in, is much the same. By capping the train speed to 160km/h max, the train will take 4hrs to Changmai.

Similarly the politicians propose the bullet train from China via Nongkai to bypass Bangkok and go directly to Laemchabang and beyond. Again this will protect airlines flying from Bangkok to the North East.

The northern-line wasn't actually completed as far as Chiang Mai until 1921, by the way.

The two new 'high'-speed lines (perhaps we should start calling them medium-speed on ThaiVisa ?) are intended only for freight, not passenger-trains, and won't run to Chiang Mai anyway. Although we may eventually benefit from the delayed long-term metre-gauge track-dualling project, which is planned to continue.

Yingluck/PTP's idea of a high-speed passenger-only network was always crazed, and talked-up as being more than it was planned to deliver, IMO. But with nice lunch-boxes !

The northern line Bangkok - Changmai phase 1 was completed in 1892 as far as Ayuthaya, but interference from politicians as I said, caused the track to be changed from standard guage to 1 metre guage for its entire length. So the original tracks were reguaged.

[bunuel]

Time for Thailand to move from 19th century train systems to 20th century system.

Will they ever catch up???

In case you have not realized we are in the 21th century for 14 years now...but will you ever catch up????

Perhaps a more pertinent question here is will Thailand ever catch up?

That train left the station some time ago!

[khundon]

How can a train run on a table?

Well, if time can, then I expect the Thais will figure out how to get trains to do the same.

[Lokie]

At the moment the Chinese are building more High speed railway than anyone else in the world, as they look to invest in other countries (a lot in Africa) maybe they might get involved with some of Asean countries with long term plans and investment...

Interesting to see, peeps mentioning High Speed trains then talking Overheads (electric) then showing Class 43 Diesel hauled trains running under wires....lol

The class 43s or HST 125s (run at 125mph in service, can do about 140ish full cock) to give them their more common name still hold the record for fastest diesel powered locos. If the Thais are going to lay the infrastructure for these routes then it is cheaper to run diesel hauled then the added expense of Overhead wires. I would have thought there would be problems of line blockage/trespass and all sorts of things about the pway which could cause a disaster here... and you want tip top track maintenance on this type of railway also, think best Thailand sticks to normal speed railway and get that right first

[billd766]

How can a train run on a table?

Well, if time can, then I expect the Thais will figure out how to get trains to do the same.

Bring back Mussolini I say.