End of the line looms for Hua Lamphong regulars

[reader]

From  AFP / Bangkok Post

A woman buys drinking yoghurt from a vendor at Hua Lamphong station. (AFP Photo)

An uncertain fate awaits the vendors, drivers and rough sleepers who have made a second home under the ornate arched ceiling of the century-old Hua Lamphong railway station in Bangkok.

The elegant Italianate columns and stained glass windows of the station will soon echo no more to the constant rattle of trains arriving and departing.

The vast majority of services will move in November to the new Bang Sue Grand Station, a modern hub that eventually will be part of a network of high-speed rail services including a line to China via Laos.

The coronavirus pandemic has already bought a year’s reprieve for the current station — Bang Sue is almost finished but is currently being used as a vaccination centre.

But movement restrictions and a lack of foreign visitors have crippled the kingdom’s tourism-dependent economy and the dozens of people eking out a living at Hua Lamphong are already feeling the pinch.

“We have to be very frugal — I’m using my savings to cover living expenses,” said Boonkerd Khampakdi, who has sold food to hungry travellers at the station for the past 20 years.

The 51-year-old told AFP she now makes only 1,000 baht per day, a tenth of what she made before the pandemic and barely enough to cover monthly rent for her stall.

Nearby, tuk-tuk driver Wutthisak Inthawat waits patiently for what few potential fares pass through the station’s entrance.

He said it had been increasingly difficult to cover the hire fees for his vehicle, pay rent and feed his family.

“I have two young daughters — three and nine years old,” said Wutthisak, 34. “If I can’t manage to pay off my debts I will have to return to my home province.”

The long platforms and languid atmosphere of the Hua Lamphong station have long imbued an element of romance to rail travel in Thailand.

It was a crowning achievement for the Italian architect Mario Tamagno, who worked extensively in Thailand at the turn of the century and whose blueprints drew inspiration from the Frankfurt central station in Germany, built near the end of the 19th century.

Continues at

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2172663/end-of-the-line-looms-for-hua-lamphong-regulars

[vinapu]

sad but perhaps inevitable considering how slow trains were moving on the last leg toward Hualampong.

At least good that they are not planning to demolish  station .

In my  opinion , considering existing infrastructure , MRT connection and central location  they still should use it for one-line shuttle service to / from new Bang Sue station.