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High speed train Bangkok - Korat 500 baht/one hour 17 minutes - "no way will it fail"


webfact

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Or travelling from Europe to Asia by train. If there weren't so many visa you have to manage...

I would love to go from Chiang Rai to Bath by train. There is a website called "The Man in Seat Sixty One" which allows you to plot how: Bus to Vientianne and then Hanoi, then train through China, Russia, Europe, Channel Tunnel and so through Britain. Do able, Although the tube from Kings Cross to Paddington might be a trial!

 

Visas? I'd rather not think about it!

 

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22 minutes ago, JAG said:

I would love to go from Chiang Rai to Bath by train. There is a website called "The Man in Seat Sixty One" which allows you to plot how: Bus to Vientianne and then Hanoi, then train through China, Russia, Europe, Channel Tunnel and so through Britain. Do able, Although the tube from Kings Cross to Paddington might be a trial!

 

Visas? I'd rather not think about it!

 

I think you might get stuck in Paddington. Apparently marmalade isn't a very good lubricant.

 

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I would love to go from Chiang Rai to Bath by train. There is a website called "The Man in Seat Sixty One" which allows you to plot how: Bus to Vientianne and then Hanoi, then train through China, Russia, Europe, Channel Tunnel and so through Britain. Do able, Although the tube from Kings Cross to Paddington might be a trial!
 
Visas? I'd rather not think about it!
 

Actually, if you take not the direct route it's just two visa for EU and UK citizen, China and Russia [emoji4]
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10 hours ago, CLW said:


Or travelling from Europe to Asia by train. If there weren't so many visa you have to manage...

 The orient express   goes through Thailand , Malaysia and down to Singapore , used to see it regularly when I worked on Malaysia project , has a viewing platform on the back and many people sit out on it quaffing Champagne. We managed to delay it on a few occasions

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6 minutes ago, Dave67 said:

 The orient express   goes through Thailand , Malaysia and down to Singapore , used to see it regularly when I worked on Malaysia project , has a viewing platform on the back and many people sit out on it quaffing Champagne. We managed to delay it on a few occasions

That "Orient Express" is just a marketing trick.

Somebody paid to use the name.

"Orient Express" means London - Paris - Venice - Istanbul.

(Of course that does not mean it is not an interesting experience - it's just that I don't like all this marketing crap).

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14 hours ago, JAG said:


We can call it the Great Way Round -
GWR. Paint the locomotives Brunswick Green and the carriages chocolate and cream....
Jobs a good'un as Brunel might have said.
:)

That would be an imrovement on the S & D (Slow & Doubtful) that many feel is the present system.:thumbsup:.

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3 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

That would be an imrovement on the S & D (Slow & Doubtful) that many feel is the present system.:thumbsup:.

Oi, leave off the old S&D. I grew up on Combe Down, over the tunnel. Started school in Lyncombe Vale, the trains used to run past the end of the playground, travelled on the last train out of Bath Green Park as far as Wellow in March 1966, learnt to fire a steam locomotive on the S&D 7F on the West Somerset. I mean, Canada? pah! One train a week between Toronto and Vancouver, with a passing loop in Calgary! :smile:

 

The S&D is being recreated in N gauge here in Chiang Rai!

 

PS -I've got all the Ivo Peters books here - if you want to borrow them PM me, I'll EMS you a couple...

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7 hours ago, phetpeter said:

I wonder what happens to Honda wave 110cc with farmer Nong and wifey, when hit at 200kph because he still believed the bike would pull away while in top gear on the track to watch the train go past?

Are you one of the folk that thinks HST will be crossing roads at grade level. Try and imagine Nong and wifi riding a Honda Wave and colliding with the BTS. There will be no grade crossings, although I can understand your thoughts re this. HST is designed to run on a dedicated R.O.W.  

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Are you one of the folk that thinks HST will be crossing roads at grade level. Try and imagine Nong and wifi riding a Honda Wave and colliding with the BTS. There will be no grade crossings, although I can understand your thoughts re this. HST is designed to run on a dedicated R.O.W.  

You're right of course, but this being Thailand I wouldnt be surprised to see a HST from Korat running into Hualampong ( or wherever the terminus will be) with a surprised and rather windswept Nong, his Honda Wave, two chickens and a water buffalo perched on the front buffer beam!
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11 hours ago, JAG said:


You're right of course, but this being Thailand I wouldnt be surprised to see a HST from Korat running into Hualampong ( or wherever the terminus will be) with a surprised and rather windswept Nong, his Honda Wave, two chickens and a water buffalo perched on the front buffer beam!

I can think of 50 reasons why the terminus won't be at Hualamphong. Bang Sue is much more likely.

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To take that Chinese train, first one has to go to the main train station and fight his way through heavily congested street. Takes me at least 2 hours. Then 2 hours by train to Korat.
But what is the driving time? About 4 hours. So ... ?

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39 minutes ago, halloween said:

I can think of 50 reasons why the terminus won't be at Hualamphong. Bang Sue is much more likely.

 

This seems very likely if only because that's where they've been building the new main-terminal for some time now, due for completion in 2019 it will include  " Standard-gauge platforms (highspeed-rail and airport link services) " on its third-level, one floor above the metre-gauge platforms on the second-level.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang_Sue_Central_Station

 

The paper we can't quote reported last year that Hualumpong will eventually become a rail-museum.

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11 minutes ago, Ricardo said:

 

This seems very likely if only because that's where they've been building the new main-terminal for some time now, due for completion in 2019 it will include  " Standard-gauge platforms (highspeed-rail and airport link services) " on its third-level, one floor above the metre-gauge platforms on the second-level.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang_Sue_Central_Station

 

The paper we can't quote reported last year that Hualumpong will eventually become a rail-museum.

Thanks for posting the wiki link.

26 platforms! For me, there's something frightening about having railway platforms "upstairs" on levels 2 & 3, rather than safely on the ground.

I don't know what other users think?

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1 hour ago, bluesofa said:

Thanks for posting the wiki link.

26 platforms! For me, there's something frightening about having railway platforms "upstairs" on levels 2 & 3, rather than safely on the ground.

I don't know what other users think?

I think you think like my Thai g/f thinks.

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It seems to work OK, for the Skytrain stations, having the platforms upstairs ! I guess big-city folks are used to these things ! :smile:

 

Of course, the Bang Sue station is currently just for domestic-travellers on the new line, and the existing SRT-network passenger-services, linking to the ARL & MRT. But who knows whether international-passenger services will eventually be proposed ?

 

I imagine there will be a larger/busier freight-depot where container-trains are sorted for onward-movement to Laem Chabang or transfer of containers to the metre-gauge network & land-transport to Bangkok-area ?  Does anyone know whether that will be at the existing SRT Phahonyothin Cargo Yard, or somewhere else ?

 

Or perhaps the Chinese plan to run most of their medium-speed heavy-freight direct/non-stop into Laem Chabang ?

 

But I imagine that B500 to Korat sounds better, when trying to explain to Thai voters/taxpayers, why they should be paying for the whole Thai-section of the line ! :whistling:

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If the Chinese build it and keep the Thai's away from it, then maybe it will work.

This train need to go over all the road crossing, that is the only way I see it working in this country.

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5 hours ago, halloween said:

I think you think like my Thai g/f thinks.

Ha ha ha! Thanks!

As someone else has since said, it works for the sky train. There again that's only two platforms on one level, rather than 26 platforms spread over two levels.

 

It makes me wonder how long it will all stand, and whether regular maintenance will be faithfully undertaken?

I was watching a documentary about the continual maintenance required on the concrete pillars supporting Spaghetti Junction in the UK (I believe it's Europe's largest motorway junction), and that's only been open for forty years.

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4 minutes ago, dominique355 said:

What Thailand needs is a transportation system that gets the trucks off the streets. Passenger car are a minority on intercity highways

Fifty years ago in the UK, Dr.(Slasher)  Beeching did the reverse. Closed the railways and put trucks on the British  highways, which some may have seen as efficient. Thailand's truck lobby will put up resistance to loss of revenue, but you're right, too many heavy trucks on Thai roads. IMHO this whole railway plan/plans is not about improving Thailand but about helping China get to Singapore. No doubt some will disagree. 

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4 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

Fifty years ago in the UK, Dr.(Slasher)  Beeching did the reverse. Closed the railways and put trucks on the British  highways, which some may have seen as efficient. Thailand's truck lobby will put up resistance to loss of revenue, but you're right, too many heavy trucks on Thai roads. IMHO this whole railway plan/plans is not about improving Thailand but about helping China get to Singapore. No doubt some will disagree. 

I smell a rat!

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