Cabinet approves rail plans
September 9, 2010 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
BANGKOK, 9 September, 2010 – The Cabinet approved, Tuesday, joint investment plans with China to construct three high-speed rail routes worth nearly Bt400 billion.
The routes are: A 580 to 600-km Bangkok to Nong Khai line that would cost Bt140 billion; a 220-km Bangkok-Rayong at a cost of Bt56 billion and a 1,000 km Bangkok-Padang Besar route costing Bt200 billion.
The Bangkok-Nong Khai route would end at the Friendship Bridge on the Mekong River and connect with a proposed rail track that would eventually cross Laos to link with China’s rail network in Yunnan province.
Trains would travel up to 200 km per hour and this would require suitable tracks capable of absorbing stress while bridges would have to be built on the entire route to replace level-crossings.
The system is being planned mainly to cater to cargo traffic between Mekong region countries to make exports from the region more competitive. Passenger traffic would also be a factor as the cost of airline travel is prohibitive in the region and flight connections are not convenient.
Thailand’s Minister of Transport will now present an investment framework and contract for parliament scrutiny and approval.
“Then the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning will conduct public hearings on the project ,” said deputy government spokesman Supachai Jaisamut.
However, the Cabinet dropped a proposal to borrow US$400 from the Import-Export Bank of China to improve rail lines in northern and southern provinces, claiming the interest rate of 4% was too high and Chinese products would have to make up 50% of the project’s inventory.
The Ministry of Transport is now sourcing funding from a domestic bank to purchase 50 locomotives worth US$195 million and to make improvements to the northern Phitsanulok-Chiang Mai rail line worth US$132 and the Tungsong-Hat Yai route worth US$80.
“Passenger traffic would also be a factor as the cost of airline travel is prohibitive in the region ”
Eh??
AirAsia…..
What does “high speed” mean?
Does it mean something like the French TGV or Japanese bullet train?
Or does it mean simply the kind of speed enjoyed on European railways since the late 19th century instead of the snail’s pace that has always existed in Thailand?
Whichever it is, why should it be mostly for freight trains? Freight doesn’t need “high speed”, but passengers do.
What Thailand really needs is simply to upgrade to a typical double-track 20th century express train standard throughout the present system. That would already be a colossal advance.
With an efficient staffing system, not the featherbedded nonsense of today.