Pattaya boost High speed rail link coming

Exiting news for Pattaya Tourism & real estate  with the news that the Thailand government will open bidding for the first phase of a hi-speed rail project linking Bangkok to Pattaya for the real estate investors this will only be good, Under the plan, the first four routes will cover 250 kilometers linking Bangkok to Phitsanulok, Nakhon Ratchasima and Hua Hin as well as to Pattaya.  Construction on all the four routes will begin at the same time with the aim of opening the new track network in 2018. Twenty minutes Bangkok Pattaya as an expected travel time commuting to work from Pattaya to Bangkok will be a real option.

Government approval will be necessary for the international bidding process expected to be completed next year.  China, Japan, South Korea and France have all expressed strong interest in bidding for the routes.  The plan aims to boost the country’s economy by reducing energy costs by 400 billion baht as Thailand focuses more on rail travel at the expense of road transport.  At the moment, rail accounts for only two percent of all traffic and roads for 80 percent.  The price of oil internationally is expected to double within the next five years with likely big increases in the cost of petrol.

Extracts from Thai news media quoted Pansak Vinyaratn, chief adviser to the prime minister said that hi-speed trains are necessary to ensure solid growth of the country’s economy as Thailand would otherwise lose competitiveness in the long run.  Second-phase construction would mean that Bangkok would link by hi-speed rail to Chiang Mai, Nong Khai, Rayong and Hat Yai by 2022.  The new railway networks will serve both passengers and cargo, including faster transport of agricultural goods which tend to deteriorate if transported long distances by road, roll on effect will mean that a large percentage of traffic will be taken off the roads.

Details of the new routes, including the exact location of stations, have not yet been decided.  Pattaya’s tourism & Real estate industry are expected to gain hugely with the arrival of a 20-minute fast train service from Bangkok or Suvarnabhumi to the seaside resorts of Pattaya Jomtien & surrounding districts.  A City Hall source told the local Pattaya media Pattaya Today, “The current rail station is far out of the city in east Pattaya, so we are hoping that the railhead for the new hi-speed trains will be nearer the downtown area.”  Another suggestion is to build a monorail track to take passengers directly from the hi-speed train to the centers of Pattaya and Jomtien.
The latest rail project will be a huge step forward in enabling Pattaya to triple its receipts from tourism by the end of the decade or soon afterwards.  Other infrastructure improvements already agreed to or in the pipeline are a beach reclamation project, more by-pass roads and tunnels, a better waste disposal system,

With the advent of the Asean Economic Community in 2015, a free-trade area of 10 countries in the region, economists say that the hi-speed rail plans will enhance Thailand as the logistics hub of South East Asia with all the basic infrastructure such as inland transport and rail and deep seaports to carry the expected increase in freight across national frontiers.  Also scheduled for completion in 2018 is Dawei port in Myanmar, a deep-water facility with major Thai funding, which will speed up the transport of goods between Asean countries and beyond to India.

As they say if you stand still you are actually going backwards this news is a major boast for the Pattaya Tourism real state and business sector that have over the past few years found it hard, a true statement of intent to improve Thailand’s infrastructure, anybody who remembers Bangkok prior to the opening of the BTS (Bangkok Mass Transit System) in 1999will remember what a difference it made to travel around Bangkok, the news regarding the High speed rail links are a bigger game changer for the region.

No doubt there will be some critics for the project but this happens when any major change comes around some people are set in their ways and do not like change, on a personal note I embrace change after living in Thailand for over twenty years Phuket, Koh Samui, Bangkok and where I like to call home Pattaya I have seen many changes and heard may critics of the changes

;;;;;;;;We can't be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don't have something better

C. JoyBell C;;;;;;;;;