Since the very first electrical railway transportation has emerged to the world, many nations throughout the world are trying to put their best foot forward into developing sufficient electrified rail transportation systems, with visions in their mind of how the better rail transportation could be taken into account for the national economic growth.
Thailand, on the other hand, has not been developed to reach its highest potency. If we could traced back into our history, we will find out that Thailand (along with Japan) was one of the very first nations in Asia to have a rail transportation. Applause to King Chulalongkorn for his dedicated vision for the kingdom. The first railway transportation in Thailand has emerged since 1890 by the construction of the rail link between Bangkok and Ayutthaya.
Despite the rural and out-of-date transportation systems that many surrounding "kingdoms" were having, the Siamese kingdom has one of the most modern form of transportation ever existed in the world in those era. Unfortunately, the vision of King Chulalongkorn has never been firmly continued at such a passion at all.
Today, the Thai railway system is known as one of the "most ancient" in comparative to many rail transit systems throughout the world. It is quite likely impossible to find such a long pause in its development elsewhere. Imagine the caravan of 40-years-old locomotives which can be found at the historical museums throughout the world operating in the 21st century. Although it is a great uniqueness, the "out-of-date" rail transportation system has caused many problems for the country. To my vision, the only hope for the country is to develop an even better form of transportation to sustain its needs for the ever increasing amount of conveyance. That is, to develop the high-speed railways that have the sufficient capacity to transport the people and augment the logistical system without depending on the imported the fossil fuels.
Although there were many plans for the construction of high-sped rails, none of them seems to really work out very well. As government changes, the plan changes. Nothing that has ever been changed at all is the current rail system. If a high-speed train system has been completely installed and operated with its capacity, imagine how much the country could increase its economical prosperity. The only thing we need is the right vision.
An article by: Administrator, Thailand Economic Forum, Bangkok.
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