All Southern train services to resume Friday
Written by Admin on Thursday, September 11th, 2008
All Southern train services to resume Friday
SONGKHLA, Sept 11 (TNA) - All Thailand’s southbound and southern region trains will resume full service on Friday, after a more than two-week strike protesting against the government by the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) labour union, according to a senior SRT official.
Train services nationwide have been suspended seince September 1 as a result of the national railways workers labour union taking leave to show their support for the anti-government protest of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD).
Thanongsak Pongprasert, SRT director for the Southern region, said national railways executives had negotiated with the leaders of its labour union and they agreed to resume all southbound train services on Friday, including trains from Bangkok.
Hat Yai Terminal was increasing public information to let the public know that the train would be in full service on Friday.
SRT officials were now stepping up security measures to get ready for the resumed operation, especially for the trains to the insurgency-torn southernmost provinces.
It was believed that the passengers would fully return to use the train services very soon, he said.
Mr. Thanongsak added the first two trains scheduled to depart Hat Yai to Sungai Kolok and Chumphon, leaving at 6.30 am.
The absence of hundreds of key state railway employees, including train operators, engineers, conductors and varied technicians taking sick leave had meant that many trains were unable to run.
Seventy-six SRT rail route services nationwide were disrupted, with many services suspended altogether, paralysing railway cargo transport.
However, the services had gradually resumed, except the southern routes that some trains were still stop services.
The SRT said it had already lost about Bt115 million in revenue but is now recouping, earning Bt12.1 million daily from resumed services in every region, except the southern route whose employees are still on strike causing it to lose Bt5.4 million a day.
