SRT locomotives set to go to three southernmost provinces
- Monday, October 26, 2009, 22:19
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SRT locomotives set to go to three southernmost provinces
SONGKHLA, Oct 26 (TNA) – The 19 State Railways of Thailand (SRT) locomotives at Hat Yai maintenance centre have been completely serviced and restored to full standards of mechanical safety, especially to operate in the violence-plagued provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, according to Thanongsak Pongprasert, SRT’s Southern region director.
The problem of the halted services is not yet resolved as SRT staff who called in sick or took holiday leave still bars full resumption of services.
Mr Thanongsak said even though the engines are ready, many workers who asked for holidays or sick leave and remained absent from their duties.
Meanwhile, 56 intern engineers from the SRT Railway Engineering School who are now able to assist in train operations arrived at Hat Yai Monday to partly resolve the work stoppage.
The interns will be assigned to carry out locomotive maintenance work until all trains in the southern provinces can resume full service.
In a related development, Lt-Gen Kasikorn Khirisri, commander of the Civil-Police-Army United Force in the region said the security provided for the railways operated in the border provinces continued, and was fully alert despite the trains not running.
He said foot patrols were carried out along the train routes and between stations, supplemented with helicopters.
Gen Kasikorn affirmed that passengers would be entirely safe when services resume.
Railway services in the upper southern provinces can resume on all routes, but all must stop at Hat Yai station and services in all three
southernmost provinces continue to be suspended indefinitely.
SRT national labour union president Sawit Kaewwan urged the SRT management to urgently redress safety concerns for the entire national railways service to have clear, common practices, particularly in the high-risk three southern provinces.
The SRT union meets Monday with the State Enterprise Labour Relations Confederation and will hold a news conference to announce its position and outline their next movements.
Rail services in the South were suspended October 16, but have resumed in some places.
The union said that workers are not confident having aging locomotives and demanded that the locomotives and their trailers must be fully repaired and declared fit for operation, and that SRT management should not force railway workers to operate trains with defective equipment.
Negotiations with the minister of transport must take place as soon as possible.
Their action came after a derailment in the resort town of Hua Hin in Prachuap Khiri Khan province October 5 which left seven passengers dead and injured nearly 90 others. (TNA)
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