L1 - L16
Volume 12, Issue 16
1 - 15 May 2013
bullet train TO PATTAYA ON TRACK
Pattaya Railway Station at the end of the line?
B
idding wars begin early next year in the battle for the mammoth contract to supply Thailand with four highspeed train systems, thus allowing the Bangkok-Pattaya link to be running by 2019—if not sooner. Under current plans, the Pattaya route will be extended to Rayong in phase two some years later.
Chula Sukmanpop, transport director general, said international train suppliers would present their various technologies later this year for the government to pick just one system for all routes. Companies from China, Japan and Europe are keen to supply the trains; China is thought to be the front runner because Beijing already runs the longest bullet train route in the world – from the capital city to Guangzhou, which covers 2,298 kilometres in eight hours.
However, critics say that the bold plan to spend 983 billion baht on four highspeed trains in Thailand depends on the success of the government’s controversial plan to borrow two trillion baht. Opposition spokesmen in Parliament have vowed to oppose the bill on the grounds of indebtedness and potential corruption, preferring that the cost be borne out of normal budgetary procedures. Continued on page 6
30 BAHT