Tanongsak Pongprasert said the additional trains would up capacity by more than 100,000 passengers a day during the festive period. He continued by saying there would be 10 more trains each day on northeast services from Bangkok to Udon Thani and Ubon Ratchathani as well as the northbound line up to Sila-at.
Additional carriages will be tacked on to northbound trains travelling on to Chiang Mai as well as other trains going to and from Ubon Ratchathani and the south Thailand destinations of Hat Yai, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Trang. In total, the SRT will be utilising 120 extra carriages on rapid and express class trains.
Christmas is not a traditional holiday, nor celebrated to any great extent, in Thailand and public transportation is no busier than normal at this time. The New Year is a different story. 12GO ASIA says trains, buses and flights are full and travellers really need to reserve their seats to ensure they are able to get to their chosen destinations in time to ring in the New Year.
Thai rail operator lays on extra trains for New Year travellers
News in Asia
The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) has announced it will be adding extra trains to timetables for the New Year holidays. The national rail operator’s deputy-governor told reporters last week that extra services would be running on the 30 and 31 December as well as between the 2 and 4 January.