Book Thai train tickets online again starting February

[webfact]

Book Thai train tickets online again starting February

By  Sasiwan Mokkhasen, Staff Reporter

 

  

Promotional image for the new e-ticket system which will be available Feb. 1. Photo: State Railway of Thailand

 

BANGKOK — Hustling to the railway station to buy train tickets – an oddity in the 4G era – will soon end with the reintroduction of the state railway’s online booking system.

 

Starting on Wednesday, passengers will again be able to book and buy train tickets from two hours up to 60 days before departure time. Printing physical tickets is still required as the State Railway of Thailand said it will not accept those shown on smartphone screens.

 

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/transpo/2017/01/30/book-thai-train-tickets-online-starting-february/

 

-- © Copyright Khaosod English 2017-01-30

[vadid]

What's the betting it will only work if you have Windows 95?

[the donger]

I don't see why anyone would use this. The trains are never full and nobody pays attention to the seat numbers.  

 

Plus it just seems easier to just buy a ticket at the station, rather than faffing with online payment, booking fees, and self printing tickets.

[chickenrunCM]

2 hours ago, the donger said:

I don't see why anyone would use this. The trains are never full and nobody pays attention to the seat numbers.  

 

Plus it just seems easier to just buy a ticket at the station, rather than faffing with online payment, booking fees, and self printing tickets.

i donßt know where you are going with a train, but from CM to Bkk, you have to buy 2 or 3 weeks in advance if you want a sleeper

[madmitch]

3 hours ago, the donger said:

I don't see why anyone would use this. The trains are never full and nobody pays attention to the seat numbers.  

 

Plus it just seems easier to just buy a ticket at the station, rather than faffing with online payment, booking fees, and self printing tickets.

Maybe they're not full because you can't book online? 

 

Anyway, that's not actually true, as chickenrun's post states.

 

This is great for tourists as they might now actually be able to book rail tickets without having physically to go to a railway station to do so.

[fstarbkk]

Let's see if they did a better job with online service than the immigration people with their online 90 day reporting.

[chainarong]

You need to be careful of scams, even if it is for train tickets, you will need to pay for them some how, if the Cambodian visa site is anything to go by there was 12 fake sites promoting visas for Cambodia, when I last applied and another unknown quantity doing visa services for twice the cost of the Visa,  so be careful...................................................  ,

[Kiwisailor]

3 hours ago, the donger said:

Plus it just seems easier to just buy a ticket at the station, rather than faffing with online payment, booking fees, and self printing tickets.

The previous system worked extremely well and did not include any booking fee - website worked fine in both Thai and English

[mtls2005]

3 hours ago, vadid said:

What's the betting it will only work if you have Windows 95?

 

And using IExplorer, and ignore the security and certificate issues.

 

Anyway, just in time for the 60-day advance Songkhran bookings.

 

They should tie in with Thai Ticket Major as well, but suspect system compatibility issues might make this impossible.

 

FWIW, one can buy a SRT ticket for A-B at any train station in the country; you don't have to go to station A.

[bannork]

3 hours ago, the donger said:

I don't see why anyone would use this. The trains are never full and nobody pays attention to the seat numbers.  

 

Plus it just seems easier to just buy a ticket at the station, rather than faffing with online payment, booking fees, and self printing tickets.

You must be joking -if you want to book a sleeper or a second class seat for the major holiday periods- New Year, Songkran, Chinese New Year,  you have to book 60 days before. They're full by the second day, of booking. Even for  Makha Bucha long weekend on Feb 11 the trains were fully booked just after New Year.

[Morakot]

Quote

 

The website www.thairailwayticket.com launched in 2009 before being taken offline a year later, relaunched for awhile, and then shut down in 2013 when the service operator’s contract expired.

Eight years after first launching, it’s now being revived under the government’s technology-driven “Thailand 4.0” campaign, railway governor Wutthichat Kalayanamit said Monday.

 

 

I remember using this in the past... It's beyond any imagination how this could have laid dormant for eight years.

 

[HerbalEd]

7 hours ago, vadid said:

What's the betting it will only work if you have Windows 95?

I'll gladly take that bet.

[HerbalEd]

7 hours ago, the donger said:

I don't see why anyone would use this. The trains are never full and nobody pays attention to the seat numbers.  

 

Plus it just seems easier to just buy a ticket at the station, rather than faffing with online payment, booking fees, and self printing tickets.

You're displaying your ignorance of the Thai train booking system and the demand for seats. Yes, often there are plenty of empty seats, but often trains are fully booked days ahead of departure. 

[lungbing]

I used the Bangkok-Nong Khai sleeper train last night.  It was a new train and was half empty.   It was due to depart at 2000 and left at 2101.   About 11pm they turned the aircon on and it was fierce, I needed the provided blanket.  They don't dim the lights, which are very bright, and staff are walking up and down all night wearing their state-issued hobnailed boots.

 

The train was clean, and so were the toilets, which are similar to aircraft ones.  The aisles no longer have luggage racks built into the ladders to get to the upper bunks, the ladders  now pull out from the wall and retract afterwards, held in place by magnets.  This makes the aisles much easier to navigate,  there's plenty of space under the bunks for luggage.   The sleeper car has a TV screen similar to an aircraft one which showed a short film in English about Hualamphong station and Hua Hin station, at Thai full volume mode.  I did book beforehand at our local station, but last night it wasn't necessary.

 

And you receive a free bottle of Rot Fai water with a commemorative label, last year being the 100th anniversary of Hualamphong.

[Jeremy50]

35 minutes ago, lungbing said:

I used the Bangkok-Nong Khai sleeper train last night.  It was a new train and was half empty.   It was due to depart at 2000 and left at 2101.   About 11pm they turned the aircon on and it was fierce, I needed the provided blanket.  They don't dim the lights, which are very bright, and staff are walking up and down all night wearing their state-issued hobnailed boots.

 

The train was clean, and so were the toilets, which are similar to aircraft ones.  The aisles no longer have luggage racks built into the ladders to get to the upper bunks, the ladders  now pull out from the wall and retract afterwards, held in place by magnets.  This makes the aisles much easier to navigate,  there's plenty of space under the bunks for luggage.   The sleeper car has a TV screen similar to an aircraft one which showed a short film in English about Hualamphong station and Hua Hin station, at Thai full volume mode.  I did book beforehand at our local station, but last night it wasn't necessary.

 

And you receive a free bottle of Rot Fai water with a commemorative label, last year being the 100th anniversary of Hualamphong.

I have also tried the new sleeper carriage. Very clean, but as you say very bright lights on all night, and yellow curtains to your bunk which don't cut out the 1000 watt lights. On my return trip I was equipped with some heavy duty black bin bags which I cut up to fit the size of the bunk curtain, fix with duct tape. Complete darkness and a good nights sleep. I would advise anyone who can't sleep with the lights on to do the same, works best in the lower bunk. No such problems in the old carriages which were dim all night, with dark curtains. Oh, and forget about getting a beer on the new trains, it has been banned, along with a lot of the fun in Thailand so it seems.

[oldlakey]

1 hour ago, Jeremy50 said:

I have also tried the new sleeper carriage. Very clean, but as you say very bright lights on all night, and yellow curtains to your bunk which don't cut out the 1000 watt lights. On my return trip I was equipped with some heavy duty black bin bags which I cut up to fit the size of the bunk curtain, fix with duct tape. Complete darkness and a good nights sleep. I would advise anyone who can't sleep with the lights on to do the same, works best in the lower bunk. No such problems in the old carriages which were dim all night, with dark curtains. Oh, and forget about getting a beer on the new trains, it has been banned, along with a lot of the fun in Thailand so it seems.

Alcohol has been banned on all railway property for a while now, supposedly, well officially

[the donger]

9 hours ago, chickenrunCM said:

i donßt know where you are going with a train, but from CM to Bkk, you have to buy 2 or 3 weeks in advance if you want a sleeper

Oh yeah I've never used them, always day trains. The daytime northeast, south, and northwest lines are always empty. 

[lungbing]

Good idea about the black-out curtains.  Going down to Bangkok sounds good,, but going home  I'm always afraid I'll oversleep, miss Khon Kaen and end up in Nong Khai!

[bokningar]

On 1/30/2017 at 5:22 PM, Kiwisailor said:

The previous system worked extremely well and did not include any booking fee - website worked fine in both Thai and English

So you really managed to book anything on the old system.

I never did. And it was not because I didn't try, I tried time and again.

The only thing I managed to do was to create a login.

 

Why did they shut it down if it worked ???

[Kiwisailor]

On 2/02/2017 at 0:56 AM, bokningar said:

So you really managed to book anything on the old system.

I never did. And it was not because I didn't try, I tried time and again.

The only thing I managed to do was to create a login.

 

Why did they shut it down if it worked ???

Used it a number of times with no problem, I believe that the reason for shutting it down was related to the present (and former) situation where no tickets were available at the station but agents in Khao San Rd could always get you a berth - for a price.

 

Advance online bookings make sense to railways as it makes it easier to manage carriage and staff numbers.