Rail Travel in Thailand

[Jun]

Resources
Richard Barrow Train guide: https://www.thaitrainguide.com/
Thai Railways: https://www.railway.co.th/Home/Index

There are various network maps, but some sections of line have freight trains only. I've travelled on well over half the network, but am unlikely to ever cover all of it. For a start, there's at least one line where the only trains of the day arrive and depart in the middle of the night, despite a relatively short journey duration.

Part 1 Pattaya to Bangkok
The Thai Rail website shows two trains a day in each direction.
This is a lie, since there are only two trains per day at the weekend. On weekdays, it's one per day in each direction. Their website doesn't explain that.
The timetable on the wall in Pattaya Station does explain that (see photo) and your other option is to check the Train Tracker on the Thai Rail site. It only shows tracking information for the train that operates.

The train to Pattaya leaves at something stupid like 6:55 am, so I haven't tried it.
The train to Bangkok leaves at 14:20 and arrives at Hua Lamphong at 18:15, so I have tried this.
The train cost just 31 baht, but I paid 80 baht for the Bolt taxi to the railway station.
The train makes a pleasant change to the bus and after arriving at Hua Lamphong, it's just a short ride on the MRT to Sam Yan or Silom.

At the moment, only some trains have transferred to the appalling new station at Bang Sue (Krung Thep Aphiwat). Fortunately, the Pattaya train isn't one of them. So I recommend trying a train from Pattaya to Hua Lamphong, whilst you still can.

The daily train is non-aircon, so I guess it's not quite as appealing during seasons with high humidity. The extra weekend train has aircon.

You can travel south as far as Ban Plu Ta Luang. The remaining sections of line are for freight only.

[Bangkokian]

Google Richard Barrow.
He travels all over Thailand by rail each weekend with great reports and pics.

[Jun]

Google Richard Barrow.

He's already mentioned as the first item in my post.
I guess not everyone reads that far before drafting a response.

[Bangkokian]

My apologies, Jun.
I sit corrected.

[Jun]

2 Bangkok Stations
I was travelling to Petchaburi and as it was the week when many long distance trains transferred from Hua Lamphong to Krung Thep Aphiwat, I had to firstly check which station to use.
It was the new station.

The public transport connections at Krung Thep are relatively inefficient, with a long and deliberately tortuous walk from the MRT to the terminal.
As a tourist who travels occasionally, this isn't a big issue for me.
However, if they want to get people off the roads and onto public transport, far more efficient connections will be needed to keep journey times competitive.

Whilst Hua Lamphong was comfortably big enough for the traffic it sees, the new station must be over 3 times the length and has multiple levels. This is far too large and as a result, long walks are required from one end of the station to the other.
The only cafe was in the North east corner.
When the trains arrive, they just occupy a fraction of the available platform length, at the north end. Therefore increasing the walk from the MRT.
To summarise, the new station is far too large and is poorly located relative to public transport links, so an awful lot of walking is needed to get anywhere.
The photo shows the inside of the station, stretching off into the distance, with few people.

Building stations that are oversized seems to be the fashion in Thailand. Other examples include Makkasan, Khon Kaen, plus loads of new stations under construction. Makkasan has never used anything near to the whole building.

Fortunately, non-express trains, plus all Eastern line trains currently use Hua Lamphong, which is far more practical.

3 The Train Tracker
The SRT website has a tracker which supposedly shows the live location of every train on the network.
This is very useful, but don't rely on it being 100% accurate.
I recently had a ticket booked on an express train from Ratchaburi to Krung Thep. Whilst having my morning coffee, I noticed a 183 minute delay showing on the tracker.
I decided to ask at the ticket office. He asked to see my ticket and confirmed the delay.
He then said there was a train to Thonburi Station leaving in 20 minutes. I accepted that and he swiftly issued a far cheaper ticket for the non-express train, plus a large refund from the express train. Very efficient work by the ticket office.

I hadn't even considered searching for trains to Thonburi when making the original booking. The non-express train was only slightly slower than the express and has the significant advantage of not using Krung Thep station. In the end, I got off one station early, due to the convenient MRT connection. I literally strolled a few yards to the end of a short platform and got into a lift for the MRT.
That's how connections should be!

[Gaybutton]

long and deliberately tortuous walk from the MRT to the terminal.

If the walks are that long, I'm surprised they don't use those people mover belts (or whatever they're called) that are often used at airports.

How are these train stations for handicapped people, especially those who have problems walking at all?

[Jun]

long and deliberately tortuous walk from the MRT to the terminal.

If the walks are that long, I'm surprised they don't use those people mover belts (or whatever they're called) that are often used at airports.

How are these train stations for handicapped people, especially those who have problems walking at all?

People with wheelchairs should be OK, as they have lifts. Boarding the train should be OK, due to a raised platform, but once at your destination, getting down the steps off the train is going to be very difficult.

People with difficulty walking are going to have problems. I suspect you walk well over half a mile from the MRT to any non-red line train. Purely due to stupid and inconsiderate station design.

This is a fairly common theme in Bangkok.
For example, a new monorail station appears to be about 300m from the supposedly connecting airport rail link station, without a walkway at present. Since both are elevated, one should be directly above the other.
However, I think the objective is more to hand out lucrative construction contracts than create an efficient transport system.

The airport rail stations at Petchaburi and Makkasan are not optimised for connectivity.
The new railway station at DMK is south of the two airport terminals, rather than being between them.
Plus numerous other examples.

They need to send a few people to Tokyo for a month to see how it can be done.

[Gaybutton]

Purely due to stupid and inconsiderate station design

Whatever the designers were drinking when they unnecessarily made things so difficult - send a case of it to me . . .

[Jun]

Whatever the designers were drinking when they unnecessarily made things so difficult - send a case of it to me . . .

I suspect they are ordered to build the biggest and most expensive structure possible, just for the benefit of certain construction companies.
So a long and indirect tunnel from the MRT to the rail station means a bigger construction contract, even if it is worse for customers.

I'm seeing evidence of this elsewhere in the country. The dual line upgrades are an excuse for massive oversized road flyovers, elevated stations and underpasses that in some cases flood before they are even completed.

I suspect delivering an improved rail service is way down the priority list, but we shall see.
After several years of heavy investment in construction, if anyone can identify a clear and tangible improvement in rail services outside Bangkok, please share it.

The trains are still a pleasant way for tourists to get around, but I think regular commuters would be after something faster and more convenient.

[pong]

New Aphiwat is so big as its preplanned for the (imminent?) future when the 2 brand new hi-speed and much more frequent trainlines to Laos-to connect into China and with JPNese help to ChMai are open-2100?
IN BKK a premium hindrance is who owns the land on which these lines-MRT etc- are to be built-or on, or beside. Which explains the often indeed cumbersome transfer arrangements. PLus of course who owns it: state, BMA, or private others (=BTS, skytrain).