Cabinet to consider high-speed train | Bangkok Post: breakingnews

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Cabinet to consider high-speed train

The high-speed train joint investment between Thailand and China will be discussed at the cabinet meeting within the next two weeks, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said during his weekly broadcast on Sunday.

"I've travelled by a high-speed train [in Shanghai] and its speed is up to 431 kilometres per hour. It takes only seven minutes to travel 30 kilometres from the airport and this shows China's capabilities in many areas," Mr Abhisit said.He said a negotiation framework will be proposed for the cabinet and the parliament for consideration before the...

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  • chandra shekhar patel

    Discussion 11 : 06/09/2010 at 12:59 PM11

    it is the new for the world. complementary to the world for the progress of train.

  • Somboon

    Discussion 10 : 06/09/2010 at 02:22 AM10

    With more than 29 years of international transportation engineering, I support the idea. BUT, just like Ricefieldradio stated and I had stated many times before, it is too many steps too far for Thailand for many reasons: 1) Too many crossings to be built, 2) It will not serve the mass since there will be too few stops along the way, 3) Cost is most likely too high for the mass, 4) How would the mass get to the stops?, 5) Maintenance will be a problem as one can see with the existing, 6) How will the human and garbage wastes be disposed of?, 7) Feasibility and environmental impact studies? There are many more questions the Post will not publish since it is getting long.

    Look at upgrading the existing first and I am willing to help instead of jumping at it and make the images look "Clean."

  • ricefieldradio

    Discussion 9 : 05/09/2010 at 10:08 PM9

    It's a great idea, BUT... Thailand can't maintain the existing rail system to any international or acceptable level. After 5 years this will just become a high speed derailment waiting to happen.

    Another consideration, especially in the North and Northeast, there are level crossings every couple of kilometers, are they going to build literally thousands of overpasses or are they going to just mow down the families, often 4 people, on overloaded motorbikes every day?

  • Ray Ong

    Discussion 8 : 05/09/2010 at 07:48 PM8

    This would be more credible if the existing rail system were in better condition.

  • kasper

    Discussion 7 : 05/09/2010 at 07:07 PM7

    Since this will be a joint venture between China and Thailand, the contractors will be Chinese.

    Most of the island of Samui has had no tap water for 6 months now, and relies on water trucks filling up water tanks at 100 baht/m3. Furthermore power cuts are a daily occurence, often for several hours, and guaranteed if it rains.
    I am sure high speed trains are a good idea, but perhaps the government could fix the more urgent problems first?

  • Who cares

    Discussion 6 : 05/09/2010 at 06:00 PM6

    Lwt the contractors be German or Japanese. Save money, built to safety standards, trouble free more or less for years. Also, send none relatives and connected people to those countries to learn how to operate them. Keep the completed project away from government, military, and rich familie's members so people will actually work to keep their jobs and not be lazy. To ruin a good idea let the nepotism and cronyism rule.But this project will take years until the rich can figure who and how to get the kickbacks.

  • weewee

    Discussion 5 : 05/09/2010 at 05:37 PM5

    This is the future. A network of high speed trains between the main cities of Thailand would be a transportation revolution. No shame in choosing a Chinese contractor.

    I guess the rail would need to be elevated to keep various dogs, buffalos and thais from using it as a shortcut trough the bushes...

  • Chris

    Discussion 4 : 05/09/2010 at 04:25 PM4

    High speed train connections can be the backbone of transportation for every country. It doenst have to be a maglev train as in Shanghai (way too expensive) but try to update the regular train tracks to accomodate high speed trains - like the german IC or ICE trains which travel with >300km/h as well on normal tracks.

  • Horatio at the bridge

    Discussion 3 : 05/09/2010 at 02:24 PM3

    Great idea and sorely needed. Having worked on Taiwan High Speed rail for 6 years and spent time managing a study for an HSR line from Bangkok to Hua Hin back in 1999 I am encouraged that Thailand is seriously considering this mode of transportation.
    However, Korean contractors? The outstanding contractors we had in Taiwan were German (I am not). Koreans were not so good, in fact one was outstandingly bad. Thai Contractors are also very capable.

  • Cale Oosha

    Discussion 2 : 05/09/2010 at 02:06 PM2

    Great Idae I would recommend Germany or Japan as contractor!

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