After taking high-speed trains in China and Japan, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is considering bringing faster rail service to Thailand.
Gen Prayut used his Returning Happiness to Thai People broadcast on Friday to tout the benefits of equipping the country's railway system with high-speed trains once new tracks are built.
Potential routes, he said, would be from Bangkok to the resort town of Hua Hin in Prachuap Khiri Khan and from the capital to Rayong via Pattaya and U-tapao.
"The government will work to yield tangible progress within this year," he said.
Talk of high-speed trains represents a shift for the military government, which earlier left them out of its railway infrastructure overhaul plan. High-speed passenger trains were promoted by the Yingluck Shinawatra government but after it was overthrown in the May 2014 coup, the military said the plan was not economically viable.
Thailand and China are collaborating to build new 1.435-metre gauge tracks from Nong Khai to Bangkok and to Map Ta Phut in Rayong. Japan also has agreed to invest in one route or more with the kingdom but the details of the lines have not been finalised. Tokyo is said to be keen to promote its high-speed train technology in Thailand.
The wider tracks could accommodate trains travelling at 160 kilometres per hour, and the original intent was to focus on freight transport. However, they could also handle passenger trains that go even faster.
But Gen Prayut had said that the public should not be carried away with the notion that high-speed passenger trains would come with the new tracks right away.
His speech on Friday, however, marked the first time that the government had shown serious interest in the idea.
Gen Prayut travelled on a high-speed train from Beijing to Tianjin on Dec 23 and tested the Japanese version from Tokyo to Osaka on Feb 10. After experiencing the Shinkansen, he told reporters: "It would be better if we had one like this too."
The prime minister said on Friday that the idea of developing high-speed trains was proposed to him by the private sector and that state agencies were studying the possibility.
He said the government would need to raise funds for such a project through an infrastructure fund or a public-private-partnership.
"Cost-effectiveness has to be considered," he said. "It is probable that either the public-private partnership (PPP) model or the infrastructure-fund model of investment will be utilised."
The prime minister hailed the advantages of a high-speed train, saying it would bring more benefits beyond simply taking commuters to their destination faster. It could expand trade and other economic activity along the route including areas around the stations which could turn into shopping centres, he said.
The Yingluck government had made exactly the same point.
Despite the high cost of investment, he said the private sector was ready to join the government to make it happen.
"Several companies, business groups and prominent business figures have already expressed interest and readiness to collaborate with the government," he said.
The former Pheu Thai government had proposed high-speed passenger lines from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Nong Khai, Rayong and Padang Besar in Songkhla bordering Malaysia.
Then-transport minister Chadchat Sittipunt, who was behind the scheme, said the project would also help to distribute economic growth to areas outside Bangkok.
Sumet Ongkittikul, a Thailand Development Research Institute researcher, warned Mr Chadchat at the time that the chance of the project breaking even was slim due to the huge cost of investment.
Other critics said that to be viable, a high-speed rail system would have to charge several hundred baht for tickets. The price would be beyond the means of many Thais, and flying on budget airlines would be faster and cheaper.
The rail system overhaul discussed by Gen Prayut was the main highlight of a speech that lasted a record 84 minutes. As the government's list of plans grows longer, the general has been using his Friday-night speeches to outline all of them in detail.
This week he also touched on isues ranging from making more use of rubber to help farmers, to promoting Thai artists, problems with errant monks, and setting up a new "superboard" to oversee education, the latest attempt to reform a sector that has resisted meaningful change for decades.