BANGKOK, 5th April 2018 – The Deputy Minister for Transport has ordered a study into renting more trains for the Airport Rail Link (ARL) to remedy the present shortage while also calling for spare parts to be stockpiled.
Deputy Minister for Transport, Pailin Chuchottaworn has followed up on the work of the ARL provider after hearing reports of frequent congestion on bogeys, finding that the cause is a shortage of trains due to many undergoing maintenance and waiting for parts from the supplier in Germany set to arrive in 9-10 months. Plans by the operator to purchase seven more trains are estimated to take several years to materialize.
To remedy the problem in the short term, Pailin ordered the ARL board to draft a plan to purchase 10-20 percent of needed spare parts so that they may be ready for use more immediately. He insisted that the purchases must be transparent while also asking the board to look into temporarily renting more trains.
Five of the ARL’s nine trains are currently operational and are able to accommodate 72,000 passengers a day. Another five are estimated to be needed to bring the fleet to a total of 14 trains, which would be adequate to handle the up to 120,000 passengers that use the system each day. The rentals are in line with the Eastern Economic Corridor development plan drafted by ARL and are to be proposed to the Ministry of Transport.
