Airport-Bangkok
link faces further delay
The opening of the high-speed rail link between Suvarnabhumi Airport |and inner Bangkok, scheduled for December 5, could be further delayed following this week's strike by railroad workers. Hundreds of State Railway of Thailand employees returned to work yesterday evening after paralysing much of the national rail service for 36 hours. Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart said the SRT labour union had agreed to end the strike following the government's pledge that the union would participate in reorganising the money-losing state agency. The SRT is in the process of setting up two wholly owned companies: one for train operations and the other for real-estate management. The company in charge of train operations will be responsible for running the 28.6-kilometre Airport Rail Link, which is due to open in December. "I'm not sure if the rail link can still be opened as scheduled, because the process to form the SRT company will be halted until negotiations between the SRT union and the agency's top management are concluded," Transport Minister Sophon Saram said yesterday. He said he hoped the talks would not be protracted and could be concluded within two weeks, or else the SRT would face greater financial damage. The country's international image would also take a further hit if the multibillion-baht elevated rail service between Suvarnabhumi Airport and the inner city did not start operation as scheduled, he added. The high-speed rail service between the international airport - located in the suburbs of Bangkok - and Makkasan Station was originally due to open in August, but construction delays led to a postponement. Leaders of the SRT union, which went on a selective wildcat strike on Monday morning, causing disruption to hundreds of thousands of commuters, said they were concerned the SRT would further privatise other routes of the national rail service. Yesterday, the union entered into a memorandum of understanding with the government to end the strike on condition there be further negotiations between the two sides over the SRT's reorganisation. The SRT has been losing money for years, with accumulated losses amounting to more than Bt70 billion. Sanan said the SRT management would have to hold talks with the union, as the latter still lacked a clear understanding of the reorganisation plan aimed at boosting the agency's efficiency and reducing its chronic losses. Sawit Kaewwan, president of the SRT union, said rail workers had needed to take the drastic action of the past two days in order to achieve the union's objective, even though many commuters were left stranded as a result. Deputy Finance Minister Pradit Pataraprasit said the SRT needed to be reorganised quickly, because the government had committed to investing Bt170 billion in more railroad projects over the next few years. Source:
24th June,2009 - The
Nation, nationmedia.com
NEWS
UPDATE... 3rd June 2009
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the business plan for train services, including the December 5 launch of airport link project between Suvarnabhumi Airport and the inner city areas at Makkasan and Phyathai. The trial period for the airport link service will last three months and the full service is expected to start in March, Transport deputy permanent secretary Thawanrat Onsira said. The construction for the airport link service is about 98 per cent completed and the remaining work is for testing the operation system. Source:
3rd June - nationmedia.com
Previous
News...
The Minister of Transport, Sophon Zarum, and the chairman of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT), Youtdana Tupcharoen, were among those onboard for the first trip on 12 February. In the course of this year, the light rail transit line will connect the city centre and Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport. The multiple-unit express train is based on the Desiro UK built by Siemens. In 2005, SRT placed an order with Siemens Mobility and two Thai companies - B Grimm Group and Sino Thai Engineering and Construction (Stecon) - to build the rail link. The project involved the construction of a new 28km-long route and a station in the city centre. Siemens and B Grimm were responsible for developing, supplying and installing the entire electrical and mechanical parts of the project. This included track construction, vehicles, signaling systems, the power supply, a communication system, fare management, tunnel equipment, depot and workshop equipment, check-in systems and baggage management. Most of the line is elevated, with just under 1km underground. The Suvarnabhumi Airport Express will run non-stop on the 25.7km route between the airport and the capital. The Suvarnabhumi Airport City Line, which runs on the same tracks, is 28.5km long and extends further into the inner city. It has six scheduled stops and ends at Phaya Thai Station, where passengers can transfer to the Bangkok Skytrain. The first of a total of five City Line trains have already completed successful test runs at a maximum speed of 160km/h. These took place on January 18, 2009, between Klong Ton Depot and Suvarnabhumi Airport Station, just one day after the 69V traction substation and the 25kV overhead catenary line had been energised successfully. The system will be officially handed over to the State Railway of Thailand when further system tests and system integration tests have been carried out. Source:
http://kn.theiet.org
YOU TUBE VIDEOS - SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT BANGKOK RAIL LINK
|
|
