Almost 700,000 passengers use train service during April 8-14

BANGKOK: Almost 700,000 people have used train service of the State Railway of Thailand during the past seven days from April 8-14 to travel home for Songkran celebrations.

SRT governor Wutthichart Kalayanamitr noted that on April 12 alone, a total of 115,436 people travelled by train out of a total of 672,396 train travelers during the weeklong period.

He said that there was no problem of travelers being stranded at railway stations as the SRT was capable of meeting the demand of travelers in both the quality of services and the number of trains as well as safety.

The governor said that the SRT had coordinated with the highways department, the department of rural roads and local administrative organizations to keep close water at railways crossings where accidents usually take place.

In order to accommodate to an anticipated influx of passengers travelling back to Bangkok at the end of Songkran festival, Mr Wutthichart said that the SRT had arranged for extra trains for the northern and northeastern routes for the passengers during April 16-18 plus 15 free trains.

Those who are interested to take a free ride back to Bangkok can contact all railway stations to get free tickets but have to show their ID cards. Or they can call 1690 for more information about the free train tickets.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/159675

-- Thai PBS 2016-04-16

Smart people

I used the train for a couple of long journeys earlier this month.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much better the service and quality of the ride seems to have got.

Now the branch line from Den Chai to Chiang Rai please - it is tedious having to bus it to Chiang Mai!

The governor said that the SRT had coordinated with the highways department, the department of rural roads and local administrative organizations to keep close water at railways crossings where accidents usually take place.

Sure...OK...yea, right.

BANGKOK: Almost 700,000 people have used train service of the State Railway of Thailand during the past seven days from April 8-14 to travel home for Songkran celebrations.

How do they know what all people are doing?

Okay, let's see. I traveled to Bangkok by train twice in the last year. I made the two rides within only ten months, where the locomotives of both trains i sat on, broke down in the middle of nowhere.

"Hey Bangkok, Hua Dai Leo, au Hua reo reo, na khrap." There's a similarity between waiting for Godot and waiting for a locomotive...

Thailand is ready for high speed trains from China doing 380 km/h on a skateboard only, driven by a good general.

Edited April 16, 201610 yr by lostinisaan