Court Orders Workers Not To Obstruct Train Services

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TRAIN SUSPENSION

Court orders workers not to obstruct train services

By Nation on Sunday

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.

-- The Nation 2009/10/25