History of rail transport in Thailand
[1]: 1 The King of Siam received a model railway in 1856 as a gift from Queen Victoria, which is now exhibited in the Bangkok National Museum.
In the end, the first viable railway in Siam emerged from a privately financed initiative: on 11 April 1893, the metre-gauge Bangkok-Samut Prakan route (Paknam) was opened by the king.
[1]: 8 The construction of a railway network was initially managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the technology and knowledge required was imported from abroad.
[1]: 11 In November 1888 the railway engineer de:Karl Bethge (from Krupp) came to Siam and were given these plans by the Siamese government for his assessment.
The Siamese government called Bethge, engaged in Germany in the Royal Prussian Building Commission, to Thai state service.
Due to pressure from the British, the work was awarded to the English firm, Murray Campbell,[2] contrary to Bethge's advice.
However, both the southern and eastern railways were complicated by geopolitics: to the south and west of Siam were British colonies and to the east French possessions.
Due to financial strains, the government loaned a total of 4-million pounds from English and French banks, accelerating the pace of the construction, opening up to Uttaradit by 1909.
[1]: 40 This decision was made easier as the southern railway was cut off from the rest of the network as there was no bridge across the Chao Phraya River.
With the prospect of potential colonization subsiding, Siam becoming an international railway hub of Southeast Asia became a possibility which was fulfilled by the Japanese occupation force in the Second World War.
While the transport demand for the line was expected to be relatively low, King Vajiravudh pressed the project forward as a gesture of goodwill.
As part of the engineer shortage in World War I, the Department of Ways, in charge of constructing and maintains main roads, were put under the jurisdiction of Prince Kamphaeng Phet.
However, the plan was rejected due to the fact that electrified railways were still new to Southeast Asia and electric locomotives would not be able to be utilized in other sections.
[2] Thailand's participation in the Second World War and its support of Japanese military expansion led to the Thai railway being expanded due to its role in Japan's supply lines and to its being bombed by allied forces.
As a result, a railway crossing the Tenasserim range from Nong Pladuk to Thanbyuzayat started construction in July 1942 and was scheduled to be completed by the end of 1943.
To supply its advancing forces in British Malaya, the Japanese army began to utilize Thai railway immediately and on 9 December 1941, military trains began to run from Bangkok to the south, many of which never returned to Bangkok, as of March 1942 around one-third of Thailand's wagons had been left in Malaya.
Satisfactory repair of disabled wagons was further prevented by the Makkasan Railway Depot being severely damaged, as well as the lack of resources and equipments.
[2] The Thai government continued to purchase more rolling stocks, in 1948 Thailand ordered 50 steam locomotives, 200 passenger cars, and 500 wagons from Japan.
[2] In 1950, Thailand received aid in the form of a US$25.3 million loan from the World Bank in order to assist in the reconstruction of basic infrastructure.
[2] Another condition set by the World Bank was for the Royal Railway Department to be reorganized into an independent state enterprise in order to give it more flexibility and maintain profit.
[4] Though the SRT should be more profitable and flexible in theory, in practice the government restricted fare hikes in fear of public opposition.
Later, in 1955, the SRT formulated a five-year priority investment program and submitted it to the World Bank, receiving another $12 million loan to improve rail transport in Thailand.
By 1960, Thailand's rolling stock fleet, through the help of foreign aids and loans, increased rapidly to 8,391 cars, compared to about 4,000 in the prewar days.
couplers had various flaws: connecting and separating wagons require manpower to perform the task manually, and its maximum load is only 10 tons, restricting transport capacity in mountainous areas.
The SRT decided to introduce new automatic couplers, in order to reduce connection and separation time and increase loading capacity.
[2] The Eastern line connecting to Cambodia reverted to domestic use, ending at Aranyapratet, after the territory taken during World War II was returned to France.
While there has been attempts to reconnect the line, due to negligible demand for passenger or freight service the connection remains closed.
The Surat Thani-Thanoon line resumed construction in 1951 and opened to traffic as far as Khiri Rat Nikhom in 1956, and due to budget shortfalls further extension to Thanoon was never built.
With its opening, the Sarit government began a shift in transport policy, and from 1963 onwards construction of high-quality highways in Thailand progressed rapidly.
[2] The main railway north of Hua Lampong station has caused traffic congestion due to the level crossings.
