Thai Transport Minister says phase 1 of high speed rail line to begin construction in October

[webfact]

Transport Minister says phase 1 of high speed rail line to begin construction in October

 

 

BANGKOK, 19th July 2017 (NNT) – The Minister of Transport has confirmed that work on the Bangkok-Nong Khai high speed rail system will begin in October, once the government secures the cooperation of China in September. 

Minister of Transport Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said today that considerable progress has been made in preparing to start the first phase, which is the Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima high-speed rail project, covering a total 235 kilometers and requiring a budget of 179.413 billion baht for completion.

 

The minister recently led a delegation to take part in the 19th Thailand-China Joint Commission meeting in Beijing and informed the Chinese side that conclusions on the project’s agreement have been put to the State Railway of Thailand's board and are pending Cabinet review. 

It is expected that design work and all pertinent agreements will be concluded by September so that construction of the railway can begin in October. The initial fast train undertaking is to take four years, ending in 2021, with service on the first phase of the line to begin immediately. Discussions on the second phase are to commence this August. 

Arkhom reiterated the benefits the project will bring and how it will greatly improve transport for the Thai public, encouraging all to see the long term positives the rail line can offer.

 

-- nnt

[Ricardo]

" conclusions on the project’s agreement have been put to the State Railway of Thailand's board and are pending Cabinet review"

 

So the project will be the responsibility of the SRT Board, not some seperate body ?

 

 

" The initial fast train undertaking is to take four years, ending in 2021, with service on the first phase of the line to begin immediately"

 

How does service begin immediately, on something which they haven't yet started building, perhaps they mean immediately construction of the first-phase is completed, in four years' time ?

 

 

" Discussions on the second phase are to commence this August"

 

Now that's interesting, that planning/discussions on the rest of the line to the border will start this year, too.  Because no Chinese-freight can flow down the line, or indeed Thai-exports flow northwards, until construction has been completed all-the-way to the Laos end of the line from China.

[trainman34014]

Heard all this before....which year is he talking about this time ?

[micksterbs]

What a joke. 

Perhaps they should concentrate on keeping their Low Speed trains on the rails first... 

[inThailand]

My TV members will be six feet under before this is ever finished and operating.

[yankee99]

almost 3 years to build a underpass in pattaya...makes you wonder

[wvavin]

In 5 years time we shall be able to see a new form of derailment.

[Cadbury]

Phase 1 of high speed rail line to begin construction in October.

Phase 1 of horrendous loan repayment starts in November

[The Deerhunter]

A very optimistic time line.   Someone should start a book for bets on revisions of the completion dates.

[pumpjack]

6 years ago i heard rumour about bkk to pattaya hi speed rail,  then read articles  about it was to go ahead last year. 

 

what the .......  are they doing about it now ?  is it scrapped ? 

[Dave67]

It will be another nightmare for contractors if SRT run it.

[Dave67]

"The initial fast train undertaking is to take four years, ending in 2021, with service on the first phase of the line to begin immediately'

 

More BS you cannot finish constructing a railway and start running trains on day 1 after finishing construction, there is a thing called "Testing" which you have to so all systems are integrated, They will need to test the power, over head line I'd assume, signaling, comms, track, and trains. 

[Dave67]

Design includes design alignment, which means they must survey the whole length of the project before you can submit a design alignment. How many viaducts, how many, bridges, how many land formations, how many tunnels. Unless they have been working on this project secretly for years that have a lot to do before September. Wouldnt surprise me if they just make it up as they go along

Edited July 19, 2017 by Dave67

[Ulic]

Everyone is now sharpening their elbows so they can get a good position at the feed trough.

[inThailand]

4 hours ago, Dave67 said:

"The initial fast train undertaking is to take four years, ending in 2021, with service on the first phase of the line to begin immediately'

 

More BS you cannot finish constructing a railway and start running trains on day 1 after finishing construction, there is a thing called "Testing" which you have to so all systems are integrated, They will need to test the power, over head line I'd assume, signaling, comms, track, and trains. 

Testing!  We don't need any stinking testing!

 

QC and testing concepts rarely seem to be embraced here.

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

5 hours ago, Dave67 said:

Design includes design alignment, which means they must survey the whole length of the project before you can submit a design alignment. How many viaducts, how many, bridges, how many land formations, how many tunnels. Unless they have been working on this project secretly for years that have a lot to do before September. Wouldnt surprise me if they just make it up as they go along

Yep, and how many over or under  passes are needed as level-crossings will be out of the question unless they build it elevated. Might need some fencing to the keep the buffaloes etc off the track never mind the pick-up trucks. Hopewell all over again?

 

[inThailand]

Is a high speed train really going to work here?  As others said, between buffalo's, speeding buses, optional stop lights, etc this train will probably take just as long as taking a bus.

 

Elevated train tracks may do the trick?

[Dave67]

18 minutes ago, George FmplesdaCosteedback said:

Yep, and how many over or under  passes are needed as level-crossings will be out of the question unless they build it elevated. Might need some fencing to the keep the buffaloes etc off the track never mind the pick-up trucks. Hopewell all over again?

 

Had massive problems in Malaysia where locals had made their own crossing for cars, and motorbikes talking about two trains a day so when we modernized the system.locals actually complained when we fenced their crossings off. So to keep them happy dedicated motorbike bridges were built, If the railway crosses a major road route a proper bridge will need to be built. One thing I've not seen in any announcement is that a feasibility study has been carried out.

[Dave67]

34 minutes ago, George FmplesdaCosteedback said:

Yep, and how many over or under  passes are needed as level-crossings will be out of the question unless they build it elevated. Might need some fencing to the keep the buffaloes etc off the track never mind the pick-up trucks. Hopewell all over again?

 

It will Probably be a mixture of a tunnel, elevated viaduct, land viaduct, and land formation. A high-speed track has massive curve radius minimum 7000m, so they can't just swerve around a mountain, river or road it's either under it or over it.

[Dave67]

1 hour ago, inThailand said:

Testing!  We don't need any stinking testing!

 

QC and testing concepts rarely seem to be embraced here.

Frightening isn't it, Sino-Thai JV

[williamgeorgeallen]

be better if the general used 44 to state projects can only be announced when they are actually started. would cut out quite a few jobs in the media.

[DekDaeng]

11 hours ago, yankee99 said:

almost 3 years to build a underpass in pattaya...makes you wonder

& then its F.O.A.

[Black arab]

Hs2 in the uk has not yet started and has been in dicussion /design for years now, would i be right in thinking high speed rail in thailand is a fairly new concept and they say it will start construction this year , worrying at least.

[Cadbury]

3 hours ago, Dave67 said:

Had massive problems in Malaysia where locals had made their own crossing for cars, and motorbikes talking about two trains a day so when we modernized the system.locals actually complained when we fenced their crossings off. So to keep them happy dedicated motorbike bridges were built, If the railway crosses a major road route a proper bridge will need to be built. One thing I've not seen in any announcement is that a feasibility study has been carried out.

"Feasibility study" is not in the Thai language. But somehow even without it they have managed to set the price of the ticket at 535 baht. 

Sounds like all systems are GO! Ticket price has been set, tickets being printed, tailors busy making uniforms, tom yum and  chop suey chefs being trained, bank accounts opened for commissions. There can't be a lot left to do except build the railway.

[Moti24]

11 hours ago, pumpjack said:

6 years ago i heard rumour about bkk to pattaya hi speed rail,  then read articles  about it was to go ahead last year. 

 

what the .......  are they doing about it now ?  is it scrapped ? 

It's already running, via Chachoengsao.  I saw one only last week going through Pattaya; it was travelling at least 40kph.

[swifty5x5]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaah. I see now they need foreigners to work in Thailand to build and work their high speed railroad.

[mtls2005]

Believe "phase 1" this is just the 3.5 Km section. Ultimately it will probably be turned into a SEZ, or Rot Fai Talat.

[NanLaew]

11 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

Believe "phase 1" this is just the 3.5 Km section. Ultimately it will probably be turned into a SEZ, or Rot Fai Talat.

I think (the current) phase 1 is the bit between Bangkok and Korat. Currently bets are off on anything moving beyond that.

[stewieg]

I think it will be good once it opens, a lot of pessimists on here giving me a headache. Do you all live in Thailand? May I suggest going somewhere else to live. It seems you're not happy here. I'd hate to meet any of you in a pub. You'd probably spoil my day. Have you nothing nice to say about anything?

Edited July 20, 2017 by stewieg

[Redline]

Somebody's pockets are bloating!  Chinese companies will have control of this.  Thailand will have little say because there are no experts here, and they would never hire anyone from outside to check the Chinese work~audits, contracts, environmental impacts...

They just want Thailand to look cool and modern, with subs, high speed rail...truth told, the mass of basic problems (you know them, and the list is long) and issues are stagnating the place.  Putting plastic flowers on a tree that has rotting roots will not work