The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) expects to resume the deep-South train service from Yala to the border on Sunday as repairs to a bombed track have been restricted to daylight hours for security reasons in the violence-plagued area.
SRT governor Wuthichart Kalyanamitra said on Thursday that the repairs to the track between Ba Lo and Ru So train stations, in an area where Yala and Narathiwat provinces meet, should take five days to complete and the service resumed on Sunday.
The track was damaged by two bombs last Sunday (July 3).
The repairs covered a radius of 20 metres around the bomb site. It cost the SRT at least 5 million baht as the track required a new foundation, new 100-metre-long rails and 100 new concrete sleepers, he said.
SRT workers were repairing the route only during daylight hours for their safety because the location was surrounded by thick forest and dense rubber plantations, Mr Wuthichart said.
He said the track bombing affected a large number of people because Muslims were travelling to celebrate the end of their fasting month. About 14 trains were running daily on the bombed route, he said.
For the time being, southern trains from Bangkok could reach only the Yala station and the SRT was providing passengers with buses to avoid the damaged track, Mr Wuthichart said.