THis is like Bush talking about putting men on Mars.......under the current regime....never gonna happen.

This will end up bankrupting the country. How the hell are they gonna pay for this?

SIMPLE answer : If they really want they'll find enough corruption funds...

As the farang are so stupid, and 'are not really necessary' to meet their requirements - Happy Happy Joy Joy. Who will the Junta turn too (most probably be requesting a bailout) deceiving for international monetary cooperation? Or is it just stupidity and shall be overlooked when the significance passes (again). Mai-pen-rai 2017

How about take this money to improve existing rail lines, add/improve rail lines to container ports, establish container handling yards at the larger Issan cities and the border crossings to Laos and Cambodia. Then ensure the transport rates are low enough that a majority of the current heavy truck traffic is reallocated to rail transport. This would greatly reduce the amount of non-agricultural heavy traffic from the roads reducing bus and passenger vehicle travel times while improving road safety. It would also reduce the damage to road surfaces that is currently being done by overloaded trucks.

In all honesty how many Thais headed home to Issan for songkran will be able to afford a high speed rail ticket and how many wealthy Thais go to Korat?

This could not have been said any clearer. Best bang for their buck.

Quite so. Expand the current service, fix the current lines, add new lines, new rolling stock. In short, look at all the reasons why the current system is so crappy and fix it.

Oh, and then maintain it.

Much better value for Thailand and it's people to spend money in that way than a few "trophy" high speed trains.

I'm not aware the rail system in Bangkok is inefficient, or falling to pieces. In fact, a lot of Victorians ( Australia ) wish their railway system was half as good. Don't get me started on the Myki ticketing system there. I feel sorry for any tourist in Melbourne that attempts to use public transport.

While I know Thai-bashing is a popular sport among all the super-intelligent falangs, perhaps it would be wiser to let the Thais get on with it, and see what the outcome is.

While I agree that the myki system must be a serious problem for visitors to my state, once you get to know how it works it's quite good. Your card works on trains, trams and buses. cf BKK for example - try using the same ticket on BTS and MRT and see how far you get.

As for country trains, Victorian country trains are crap, yes, but if you want real crap, just try the Thai country services.