The Thai Railway Authorities announced that they have purchased new train carriages for the train lines that run between Bangkok and some the provinces, including Chiang Mai, Ubon, Nong Khai and Hat Yai.
State Railway of Thailand has ordered 115 new carriages and will receive the first 13 next Monday, these trains will serve as special express trains the run from Bangkok, but don’t expect to be able to ride in them until 2017, when the track upgrades needed to support the extra carriages are complete, according to Wutthichart Kalayanamit, governor of State Railway of Thailand.
With the addition of the new carriages, expect the journies to be faster and add more departure times. The authorities expect the new carriages to help cut train journeys by as much as three hours since there will now be two trains going in each direction on every route every day.
The carriages were purchased from CNR (China CNR Corporation Limited). The first delivery is one first-class aircon seating and sleeper car, 10 second-class aircon seating and sleeper cars, one aircon buffet car and one electric power car. The final delivery should be made by November, leaving plenty of time to go into operation next year.
With the additional new cars, expect renewed interest in riding the rails. The reasons that many people currently opt for low-cost flights or bus journeys over train trips is because many of the current carriages are old and in disrepair, they are also often out of service.
The officials expect the new trains will serve over one billion passengers per year, and netted the organization THB1.25 billion in revenue, Thairath reported.
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