Airport Rail Link due for big overhaul

[reader]

From The Nation

After 14 years in operation, Bangkok’s Airport Rail Link that connects Suvarnabhumi Airport with downtown Bangkok, will soon undergo a major maintenance, the Department of Rail Transport has announced.

Skipping this important step could jeopardise the safety of commuters, the department’s director-general Pichet Kunadhamraks said on Thursday (March 21)

He said that following a recent inspection, the current operator Asia Era One hired experienced companies, including Siemens Mobility, to monitor and maintain the rail’s electrical and signaling systems on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. All trains are inspected by officials before running every day, he added.

Asia Era One is a subsidiary of Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, Thailand’s largest conglomerate. Operating the Airport Rail Link is part of the deal to which CP agreed after winning the 276.5-billion-baht contract to build and operate high-speed rail lines linking the three airports of Don Mueang, Suvarnabhumi and U-Tapao.

Pichet added that the Airport Rail Link, which began operations in 2010, had undergone a major overhaul in 2018 after hitting the 2.4 million-kilometre mark while it was still under the administration of State Railway of Thailand (SRT).

“Another major overhaul is due soon as the route has expanded to cover a greater distance since 2018,” he said. “Without this overhaul, the train system could experience more frequent malfunctions that affect passenger safety or cause more delays in schedules.”

The system could also suffer from having insufficient functioning trains to serve the increasing number of passengers in the future, he added.

  In 2021, CP Group announced that it had earmarked 2 billion baht to improve Airport Rail Link’s services and various systems, including braking, electricity, air conditioning, lighting and radio communication.

It also vowed to add one more carriage to the express line, which has 3 carriages per train, to increase passenger capacity to 800 per day.

[macaroni21]

45 minutes ago, reader said:

Operating the Airport Rail Link is part of the deal to which CP agreed after winning the 276.5-billion-baht contract to build and operate high-speed rail lines linking the three airports of Don Mueang, Suvarnabhumi and U-Tapao.

Pichet added that the Airport Rail Link, which began operations in 2010, had undergone a major overhaul in 2018 after hitting the 2.4 million-kilometre mark while it was still under the administration of State Railway of Thailand (SRT).

“Another major overhaul is due soon as the route has expanded to cover a greater distance since 2018,” he said. “Without this overhaul, the train system could experience more frequent malfunctions that affect passenger safety or cause more delays in schedules.”

--

It also vowed to add one more carriage to the express line, which has 3 carriages per train, to increase passenger capacity to 800 per day.

As often is the case with Thai journalism, it leaves more questions than it answers.

1. Any sign of a high-speed rail linking the 3 airports? Any sign of building works at least? (They must have won the contract in or before 2018).

2. Has anyone noticed that "the route has expanded to cover a greater distance since 2018"? As far as I know, it still starts at the airport and ends a Phaya Thai (and vice versa).

3. Have they restored the express line (different from the present local line) - the one which they say will have increased capacity to carry a grand 800 passangers a day, which is toughly 0.65 percent of the 123,000 passengers* a day that use Suvarnabhumi?

*45 million assengers a yer divided by 365 days.

[reader]

10 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:

As often is the case with Thai journalism, it leaves more questions than it answers.

Certainly the case in this article.

Reporter accepts statements without any critical analysis or knowledge of project's history.

Recent news articles about Thai public education system have all identified "lack of critical thinking" as one of its failures.

[Riobard]

800 per day. Sardines are happy.