webfact Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 PM instructs overall improvement of Airport Rail LinkBANGKOK, 23 March 2016 (NNT) - The Prime Minister has ordered investigations into the cause of the sudden power blackout of the Airport Rail Link on Monday.Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha instructed related units to overhaul the entire emergency backup power system, in order to prevent recurrence of the incident. Power failure has been reported multiple of times in the past.The power failure halted the train between Ramkhamhaeng and Hua Mark stations and trapped more than 700 passengers in jam-packed carriages without airconditioning for about an hour. Reports said that several passengers passed out.The Electrified Train Co., a subsidiary of the State Railway of Thailand, is currently responsible for operating the airport link.The Prime Minister ordered the agency to keep a good maintenance on the existing carriages and add four more trains to handle the increasing number of passengers. He reiterated that no new trains will be purchased until officials are able to iron out the existing problems of the carriages in service.General Prayut assured the public that involved officials will tend to the issue, and appropriate disiplinary action will be filed against the responsible parties.-- NNT 2016-03-23 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mango Bob Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 The STR should not be handling anything. They screwed up the Train system in Thailand and now the Rail Link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCruncher Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 General Prayut assured the public that involved officials will tend to the issue, and appropriate disiplinary action will be filed against the responsible parties. Talk is so cheap these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anon467848 Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 (edited) Thais don't believe in spending money on maintenance, which eventually results in down time... they wait until something breaks down, and then ask why did that happen? Edited March 23, 2016 by merlin2002 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven100 Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 The STR should not be handling anything. They screwed up the Train system in Thailand and now the Rail Link. I think to be fair it's not all SRT's fault about Thailands train system .... if you are saying that the trains are all clapped out old junk carriages ... yes they are but it's because of having a loss making enterprise. How can SRT make money at 50 baht or something ridiculous to go from Bangkok to Arunyapateth ... you just can't make anything charging so small amount ... and if they increase the ticket prices 100% or more .... Thai people can't afford that amount so it's geared for the low income earner ... if ticket prices were higher to cover costs for new trains, labour, new stations, maintenance etc .... the low income earner could not buy / afford to purchase a ticket so they would not get many passengers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeneeds Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 may be a handle installed to get them out of trouble in a breakdown Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhizBang Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Start by bring in a private company to run the ARL and boot SRT out. Maybe even take that thought one step further and disband SRT completely and allow private companies to take over the whole operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowboat Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 He will wave his hand in a majestic fashion, and all will be fine. Sadly, he offers no substantive solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thian Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Power outages can occur but the backup system should ALWAYS work and get tested regularly. The one responsible for that deserves to be fired together with the ones who didn't care at all for the passengers in that oven. If Thailand has good trains i might travel more inside the country but it has to be all Japanese/German quality or you won't see me there. The ARL is also a no-no for us, what a shame! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trogers Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 The STR should not be handling anything. They screwed up the Train system in Thailand and now the Rail Link. And not too long ago, pushed to develop and manage those high-speed trains... ☺ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coulson Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 How do you *add* more trains to a network without *procuring* them..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muhendis Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Start by bring in a private company to run the ARL and boot SRT out. Maybe even take that thought one step further and disband SRT completely and allow private companies to take over the whole operation. Thats sort of a good idea but better to denationalise everything and let the private companies compete as happened in the UK. The govt. job is to be the administration of the country not run a poor train service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratcatcher Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 How do you *add* more trains to a network without *procuring* them..... It is saddening but not surprising that our 'hands-on" P.M. Prayuth has to actually tell people to do their jobs. The story here goes back to 2014 :http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/761323-airport-rail-link-a-model-of-failure-thai-editorial/ I am reasonably knowledgeable about railroads, but not the Bangkok Airport Rail Link, however, it is entirely possible that in their maintenance shops they have several train-sets that still require work, thus adding more trains would not be too difficult if the ones requiring service were already fixed, ready to roll. However that would require the train-sets that are currently in service to be sidetracked for maintenance of their own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbie Dye Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Am I wrong or was there not a nonstop train that was withdrawn ages ago due to lack of maintenance leaving only the slow train? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerojero Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Instructs what should have been done. Why are the irresponsible head management not held accountable. Oh sorry, TIT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dumbastheycome Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 How do you *add* more trains to a network without *procuring* them..... Split existing carriages into smaller units. That way if a power failure happens statistically fewer people will be inconvenienced . A statistical improvement ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAG Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 How do you *add* more trains to a network without *procuring* them..... It is saddening but not surprising that our 'hands-on" P.M. Prayuth has to actually tell people to do their jobs. The story here goes back to 2014 :http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/761323-airport-rail-link-a-model-of-failure-thai-editorial/ I am reasonably knowledgeable about railroads, but not the Bangkok Airport Rail Link, however, it is entirely possible that in their maintenance shops they have several train-sets that still require work, thus adding more trains would not be too difficult if the ones requiring service were already fixed, ready to roll. However that would require the train-sets that are currently in service to be sidetracked for maintenance of their own. I believe that is the case - the Express service was withdrawn to free up enough working sets for the commuter service. The shortage of sets in the first case was down to the fact that no-one thought (or wanted) to arrange for a stock of spare parts. So when bits failed trains were withdrawn and then used to provide parts to keep the rest running. As one "gricer" to another.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallGuyJohninBKK Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 (edited) As for the extra trains, I'm guessing it's a very bad English translation, and what they're really saying is that they're going to retrofit the currently unused luggage train cars from the now suspended Express line service, whose trains currently are running on the City Line, and make those available for passenger use. That's just a guess, but seems a logical one under the circumstances. Meanwhile, as for who's in charge and who's responsible, the acting director of the SRT apparently is come kind of General... not sure if that's police or military, but probably military. Will be quite interesting to see if the PM and cohorts really end up taking a general to the woodshed over all this. I'm betting, NOT. The ARL line has been having lack of maintenance problems since the early going. Originally I recall the problem with the train brushes wearing out prematurely and there being no available spare part. Then the trains began reaching their required service intervals, and they had to start taking different trains out of service at that point. And that in part led to the death of the Express Line service and the cannibalizing of its trains for City Line use. Along the way there also were questions raised about the durability of the Chinese made steel used for the ARL line's tracking. And now the power system failures. What's next? Edited March 23, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAG Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 The trouble with cannibalising sets awaiting repair, to keep the service going, is that as you don't have any other source of spare parts then the "donor" sets get further and further away from from being made serviceable. Until an inventory of spare parts is purchased the problem will just get worse. With modern trains most of the routine maintenance work is done through component exchange - take off the faulty box and replace it with a new one. That is a comparatively speedy process - if you have the replacement parts in stock. It has the advantage that it does not mean that you have to keep a number of standby sets in reserve to replace sets undergoing prolonged maintenance. However it all hinges on having the stock of spare parts. The same is true of track and signaling infrastructure. If a switch blade becomes badly worn you can replace it in a couple of hours overnight. If you don't have the spare part then you have a long wait whilst it is ordered, made and supplied. It rather seems that there was no provision made for spare parts when the system was set up. I should imagine that the companies who supplied the trains and infrastructure would have suggested the appropriate additional purchases of spare parts. I also imagine that they were ignored - or possibly that the funds to purchase these spares were "reallocated". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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