Thailand to modernize rail systems

BANGKOK - Thailand's rail systems will undergo a major reconstruction scheme that would include the use of China-made high-speed trains to service the increasing volume of cargoes and passengers throughout the country.

According to Chula Sukmanop, director of the Thai Transport Ministry's Transport and Traffic Policy & Planning Office, the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is committed to launching major reconstruction projects for the country's rail systems starting later this year up to the year 2020.

Chinese Ambassador to Thailand Guan Mu recently disclosed that Chinese rail experts had already conducted surveys along a 677-km-long route connecting Bangkok to the northern city of Chiang Mai.

Guan said that the route would use Chinese-made hi-speed trains, which can run 255 km per hour, adding that it would only take two and a half hours to three hours to traverse the Bangkok -- Chiang Mai route.

Chula said that the estimated 2 trillion Thai baht ($666 billion) needed to fund the projects will primarily come from loans from both domestic and overseas sources.

The acquisition of the $666 billion loan is scheduled to be submitted by the Yingluck Cabinet next week to the Parliament for approval.

If approved by the Parliament, the government would start getting the huge funding from various financial institutions on gradual basis over a seven-year period from this year.

According to Chula, of the total loan amount, 81.4 percent will be allocated for the rail projects and 15 percent for the reconstruction and expansion of roads in all regions of the country.

The rail projects will not only help improve cargo logistics systems within Thailand as well as between this country and the neighboring states but would also encourage people to use hi-speed trains instead of gas-guzzling vehicles.

"The modernized and expanded rail systems will help save not less than 100 billion baht in fuel consumption by land transport vehicles in a year," Chula said.

Hi-speed trains which will be operated under the major rail projects can run a 300-km distance within one hour and a half, compared to three hours in today's express trains.

"The use of land transport is expected to drop by 19 percent while the use of the expanded rail system is expected to double," Chula said.

The Yingluck government plans to rebuild, modernize and expand four major rail routes in the provinces where hi-speed trains will run.

According to Thai Transport Minister Chatchart Sitthipun, those routes will link Bangkok with Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, Bangkok -- Nakorn Ratchasima in the Northeast, Bangkok -- Pattaya in the East and Bangkok -- Hua Hin in the West.

Chatchart said that at the final stages of the projects, the northeastern route will be expanded to reach Nong Khai province, across the international Mekong River from the Lao capital of Vientiane; the eastern route will be expanded to Trat, which shares border with Cambodia; and the southern route will be stretched down to Songkla province, which shares border with Malaysia.

The project also calls for the construction of a dozen elevated rail and subway systems to link Bangkok with outlying provinces such as Nontaburi, Samut Prakarn, Nakorn Patom and Patum Thani.

The head of the Transport Policy & Planning Office added that roads to and from Thailand's provinces which share the borders with the neighboring countries will be widened from two lanes to four lanes as part of the major land-based logistics and mass transit scheme while cargo distribution centers will be built in all major provinces throughout the country.