High Speed Airport Rail Link news

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Gaybutton
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High Speed Airport Rail Link news

Post by Gaybutton »

The article talks about eliminating Rayong as a stop on the Suvarnabhumi-U-Tapao Airports high speed rail link - the one that's been talked about for years, but nothing has gone beyond talk.

What puzzles me is why the city of Rayong was in the proposal in the first place, but no mention of a stop in Pattaya. Pattaya would have far many more people going to and from both Suvarnabhumi and U-Tapao, but I have seen no proposals that include Pattaya as a stop.

If Pattaya is not among the plans for a stop, then we are now looking at yet another item on my "I Don't Get It" list.
__________________________________

Rayong upset at high-speed elimination

22 Jun 2018

The local chamber of commerce and other groups in Rayong are campaigning for support as they plan to petition the government to revise its decision to exclude the province from the first phase of the high-speed of the high-speed train project.

Full story: https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... limination
fountainhall

Re: High Speed Airport Rail Link news

Post by fountainhall »

This article from a week ago states that Pattaya will be a station on the East Coast HSR route.

Image
Fares are expected to start from 270 baht (S$11.40) for a trip from Makkasan to Pattaya in Chon Buri, or 330 baht from Bangkok's Makkasan to U-Tapao airport in Rayong province, reported Bangkok Post.
https://www.eeco.or.th/en/project/infra ... peed-train
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Re: High Speed Airport Rail Link news

Post by Gaybutton »

Thank you, fountainhall. Now that makes sense. I wonder just how high speed it will actually be - if they ever get around to actually building it.

I also wonder where, in Pattaya, the stop will be and how often the trains will run. If they use the current railway station, it's inconveniently far out of town and many would probably opt to stick with the airport bus.

I hope the system will be a 24 hour system. The airport bus stops running around 9:00pm, which is also on my "I Don't Get It" list since so many international flights arrive and depart hours later. Of course there still are always taxis.
fountainhall

Re: High Speed Airport Rail Link news

Post by fountainhall »

The link I posted says the existing railway route will be used east of Bangkok but with 191 kms of new track. No idea where the stations will be but it says new ones will be constructed. Max speed between Suvarnabhumi and U-Tapao will be 250 kms/hr.

I cannot find any information on train times as I expect these will not be published until nearer the time of completion. But I doubt if it will run 24 hours. Few = if any - HSR systems around the world do. But since traffic to and from the two airports will be crucial to the financial viability of the project, my guess is it will certainly have some trains running later than the present buses and Airport Link trains.
Jun

Re: High Speed Airport Rail Link news

Post by Jun »

They would have to be barking mad not to build a station for Pattaya.

U-Tapao will take passengers for tourism & business purposes. Probably with a much higher proportion for tourism, so obviously a station for Pattaya would make sense.

250 km/h will easily be fast enough for anyone going from one of the airports to Pattaya. That's significantly faster than any other option, so providing there is a suitable train frequency, it would be competitive. If the trains are fast, frequent & competitive on price, they will gain traffic.

The only reason to have faster trains and fewer stops is if they wanted to manage the 3 airports as one hub, with people possibly arriving at one & taking connecting flights out. I'm not aware of any other place where this has been tried & could not envisage it working properly in Thailand.

Pattaya needs some kind of 2~3 line metro system & obviously that should be connected to any rail station.
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Re: High Speed Airport Rail Link news

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote:They would have to be barking mad . . .
That has never exactly been absent from decision making around here.
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