Thailand's Railroad Woes

[Gaybutton]

The following appears in the BANGKOK POST:

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WOULD YOU LIKE TO DRIVE THIS? Why Our Trains are Falling Apart

 

Senior Rail Maintenance Technicians Say the Rampant Use of 'Copy' Parts will Lead to More Disasters

 

Published: 25/10/2009

 

Patching up emergency brakes with cheap copy parts, running infeasible repair schedules and borrowing parts from one train to keep another in service are all part of daily life for train maintenance workers on Thailand's troubled rail system.

 

While a State Railway of Thailand (SRT) fact-finding panel was quick to find human error was the cause of the Oct 5 derailment at Khao Tao, Hua Hin, which left seven dead and 88 injured, it is the country's ageing train network that is drawing just as many questions and fuelling the powerful railway workers' union stoppage campaign.

 

Senior maintenance technicians with more than 20 years' experience claim the system is plagued by a shortage of proper spare parts. They said experienced technicians were trying to meet unrealistic demands to keep decrepit trains in service.

 

The SRT has 209 locomotives to pull passenger and cargo cars with three major suppliers; General Electric, Alsthom and Hitachi. The locomotives have a brake system linked to a driver alert system, or vigilance system, which employs what drivers call a dead man's brake. The system is designed to keep drivers alert _ they must push a button every two minutes otherwise the emergency brake will stop the train as a safety measure.

 

If the driver suffers a heart attack or passes out, as happened in the Khao Tao tragedy where the emergency brake did not engage, it can be a lifesaver for passengers.

 

Technicians said replacement parts for the brake system should be genuine, but they claim some parts used for repairs are cheaper locally-manufactured ones they described as ''copy parts''.

 

One of the technicians learned while participating in a 2004 SRT probe into problems with replacement distributor valves that they were using copy parts. He said the part was a crucial component of the brake system as it helped distribute air which is used to activate the brake after being compressed.

 

However, SRT engineers told the inquiry panel copy parts were often used as replacements for the originals, and no one was punished accountable.

 

''What we learned later was that they often failed to function,'' the technician said. ''Their quality couldn't compare to the original ones.''

 

The technician said the use of copy parts across the entire maintenance system was common. The technician said original parts were more expensive.

 

Another technician agreed that only genuine parts should be used to do maintenance and repair work on the dead man's brakes. But as they do not have access to genuine parts, they are forced to strip parts from one train to ensure another is kept on the tracks.

 

Many of the copy parts are rubber rings which are less durable than the genuine parts, he said.

 

A document from the SRT's procurement unit dated Dec 2004, shows that 240 rings for the dead man's brake systems were ordered from a local firm at a cost of 57,000 baht.

 

One of the technicians also said their work had been compromised by SRT management pressuring them to get trains back in service as quickly as possible as there was a shortage of locomotives to meet the demands of the system.

 

Each day, about 150 locomotives are needed to run the service. But according to the most recent records, records show in 2007 there were 74 locomotives under repair with 138 ready for service.

 

This equated to about 65% of service availability. The technician said the more pressure that is placed on them to keep trains in service, the more maintenance work is hampered as they cannot properly complete repairs.

 

''We normally have a list of at least 12 items regarding safety to be checked before allowing the train to be in service, but I have to say that sometimes we can approve none of these, including the vigilance system,'' the source said.

 

''We don't have enough trains to service. So we have tried to keep the trains [we have] in service and safety issues have become a secondary priority as a result.''

 

He said the Khao Tao train tragedy highlighted the maintenance problems. He would not say whether the derailed train had gone through the 12 safety checks, but said the system clearly had a problem.

 

The driver of the train involved in the disaster, Roengsak Panthep, testified to the fact-finding panel, which signed off on its report four days after the accident, that the dead man's brake system was not working.

 

This was also confirmed by his technician Bowornrat Suatim.

 

It was found the train sped up beyond its 90 kilometres per hour limit and derailed.

 

The panel, however, did not comment on this in its conclusion, leading to accusations by the union of unfair treatment of workers. According to the check on his work schedule, Mr Roengsak had only one day off in the month of September.

 

The SRT has 3,600 staff working on trains, 780 short of the ideal manning levels, the union said. There are 1,143 technicians also short of adequate staff levels.

 

''We wonder whether it is fair to blame everything on us,'' the source said.

 

''We have seen the flaws in the work, but this is just beyond our capacity to fix them.

 

''It's about the organisation's policy making and management that needs serious consideration now.''

 

SRT management could not be contacted for comment.

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And this, from THE NATION:

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TRAIN SUSPENSION

 

Court Orders Workers Not to Obstruct Train Services

 

Published on October 25, 2009

 

The Songkhla Provincial Court has issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the SRT Labour Union from obstructing train services.

 

After hearing a lawsuit filed by State Railway of Thailand, court officials yesterday posted at the Hat Yai train garage a notice of temporary injunction issued by the Songkhla Provincial Court. The notice prohibits seven defendants - the SRT Labour Union and six leading members - from obstructing the train services.

 

SRT Governor Yuthana Thapcharoen yesterday said train services would continue from Songkhla's Hat Yai train station to the three southernmost provinces from today.

 

Eight more southern trains - four rapid and express trains from Bangkok - were resumed yesterday in addition to the previously resumed six routes on Friday. However, passengers to the three southern border provinces could not reach their destinations as all local trains to these and other southern provinces were stopped for repairs.

 

The SRT governor yesterday said that long-haul train passing through Hat Yai would continue to Narathiwat's Sungai Kolok district while local routes would also run from Hat Yai to Sungai Kolok today. He explained that the locomotives retrieved from the union had to be checked first while security agencies were preparing for resumption of services. He added that night-time train services would remain suspended as a safety measure due to unrest in the region.

 

Yuthana also admitted that, in order to prevent the labour union at Hat Yai from seizing any more locomotives, the SRT administration had ordered train services to be stopped at Surat Thani on October 16. This reportedly led to a train leaving passengers at Chumphon's Lamae district. He said the passengers reached their destinations via other transport means.

 

Wirun Sakaekhum, president of the SRT Labour Union's Hat Yai branch, said yesterday that he would join SRT mechanics and engineers to inspect the repairing process of 15 locomotives in the Hat Yai garage, because if more locomotives were fixed, they might be able to resume services on more local routes.

 

Thanongsak Pongprasert, director of the SRT's southern office, said that all railway officials were ready to resume train services to the three southernmost provinces as soon as armoured locomotives were delivered, checked and deemed ready for services. Previously there were 13 armoured locomotives for use in the southernmost provinces, but there were only five such locomotives currently at Hat Yai train station and most were in need of repairs, Thanongsak said.

 

The union had asked for delivery of the parts to fix these five armoured locomotives while they waited for the delivery of the other eight armoured locomotives.

 

He said that as SRT mechanics also brought some parts, including the vigilance systems for the armoured locomotives, some of the train services to the southernmost provinces should be resumed in a couple of days.

 

Meanwhile, a poll by Hat Yai University on 1,098 local residents on October 22-23 found that 54.8 per cent of the people disagreed with the union's train service suspension while 38.1 per cent thought otherwise. About 39 per cent believed the move was for public safety, 29.1 per cent said it was the union's unhappiness with the SRT governor's work and 28.9 per cent said the union wanted pay hike and welfare. About one-third urged both sides to negotiate for a solution while 29.6 per cent wanted train officials to be disciplined and 19.9 per cent called for reform of the SRT. About 66 per cent said the SRT governor should take responsibility for the Hua Hin train derailment, while 36.6 per cent wanted the agency reformed for better safety.

[Guest lester1]

Thai management style has often been reported on. My view of it all is that the following is common.

1. Senior management must never be put into a position of 'losing face'.

2. Senior management may reach their position for many reasons, only one of which might be an ability to do their job well.

3. Junior employees are in a work culture that stiffles initiative and constructive criticism.

 

This is true in business, in politics, and in civil government.

It just means that many more boxes have to be ticked compared to western work practices before something can happen.

What I find odd is that this goes against the one thing that Thais hold dear. The gain of personal wealth.

[Guest fountainhall]

There are, I reckon, two other factors - corruption and fear. Corruption has been much commented on this board. Investigate the use of inferior substitute parts on trains and you're bound to find corruption at its core.

 

The 'fear' factor is equally endemic. From my limited experience in business dealings with one semi-civil service organisation, very little gets done because each level of so-called management is terrified of the next.

 

A case in point is a major renovation required by an important public building in Bangkok - originally designed and constructed by an overseas consortium, then donated to the government. This will mean its closure for about 8 months, thereby affecting many companies who use the facility. In the west, a decision on what work has to be done would be taken, a project manager brought on board, contracts drawn up, consultations held with the affected companies and closure dates finalised. The whole project would then go to tender.

 

Here in Bangkok, the budget was finalised many moons ago and the money granted by the government. Then paralysis set in. The dates have been changed no less than five times. No-one wants to involve a Project Manager because they don't know how to draft the terms of reference! No consultations have been held with any of the affected companies. Worse, everyone is afraid that the tender will be awarded to the lowest bidder, inevitably a local company with no actual experience in this type of very specialist work. And if this company then botches the job, as would be likely to happen, heads would have to roll. End result - nothing happens.

 

Very occasionally I have come across this type of paralysis in Hong Kong, China, Japan and other places. But in the end, these countries get down to it and things then happen - usually extremely well. Here in Thailand, fear breeds lethargy and inaction, so everything collapses into a state of limbo.