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Thai Junta Sets Plan For Fast Rail Links To China


cavanami
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Would be nice if they completed the BTS first!

 

Thai junta sets plan for fast rail links to China

 

http://news.yahoo.com/thai-junta-sets-plan-fast-rail-links-china-102120517.html

 

Thailand's military government approved a massive budget to upgrade the country's railways including high-speed rail that would eventually link with China as part of an eight-year plan to improve infrastructure, officials said Wednesday.

 

The junta approved 741.46 billion baht ($23.3 billion) to build two high-speed train routes that will connect Thailand's industrialized eastern seaboard with its northern and the northeastern borders, Transport Ministry permanent secretary Soithip Traisuth said.

 

Similar plans initiated last year by Thailand's elected government, which was ousted in a May 22 military coup, were scrapped by the Constitutional Court in March. It said the administration's bill to borrow 2 trillion baht ($63 billion) to fund transport and water infrastructure was unconstitutional.

The junta's high-speed trains will travel at 160 kilometers (99 miles) per hour, slower than proposed by the ousted government, and will eventually "provide links to the north to China and Laos and down to Malaysia and Singapore," said Soithip, who is also the acting transport minister...

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Abhisit's government held talks with China for a high speed rail line from Nong Khai to Bangkok, with China building a line across Laos to connect with it. It was intended eventually to extend it to the South to link up with Malaysia and Singapore. But the Pheu Thai government instead planned a high speed line to connect Bangkok with the Shinawatras' home town of Chiang Mai. It looks like the junta is more of less going back to the original plan, but with Chiang Mai included.

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Mr. T had a plan to extend the rail systems but never got it implemented :dunno:

 

...just hate to see the Thai gov take on more and never complete what they started...how many decades are needed to complete the BTS on the west side of the river???

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If I remember right, Abhisit's talk discussed China paying for part of the construction from Nong Khai to Bangkok. The logic was the although high speed train might be too expensive for most working class Thais, it would be very affordable for Chinese tourists (who could crap on the seats :) ).

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