Bang Sue Junction

I made a brief visit to Bang Sue Junction Railway Station in Northern Bangkok this afternoon. I wanted to see if they’d cleared the derailed train from the accident on Sunday.

I could not see any sign of the accident. I very much doubt that the State Railway of Thailand “cleared the site of all arisings” so quickly. More likely the accident took place out of sight of the station.

Here’s a link to an album of photos of Bang Sue Junction. They are from 2008 but the station has not changed much. It’s a throwback to an older time.

Bang Sue Junction – Bangkok

I wanted to embed a slide show. Picasa Web allows this but WordPress.com does not. I am going to write another post to grumble about that.

BBC From Our Own Correspondent

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8346744.stm

I’ve listened to this program all my life – from the radio when I was a child in England to the internet today. Along with Alastair Cooke’s “Letter from America” FOOC encouraged my urge to travel and interest in things outside my immediate experience.

This short talk is about traveling by railway in Eastern Europe. Some of it is reminiscent of rail travel here in Thailand. But the correspondent who wrote:

… but there is no rushing a good train ride.

I think he hasn’t been on a Thai train recently! They’re famous for their slow progress.

Another Thai Railway Accident

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http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/27081/train-derails-srt-denies-sabotage

This is worrying: a train derailed to Bang Sue Junction yesterday. The SRT says it was because the station staff switched the points before the train had passed over them. They were in a hurry. That’s surprising: normally the Thai railway network operates slowly and trains have to wait for a long time for tracks to clear. Why the rush on a Sunday morning?

Bang Sue Derailment

Bang Sue Junction is quite close to my home. I have taken many photos there.

Bang Sue Junction

As with the accident in October it seems that the State Railway of Thailand lacks modern safety systems like accurate train location and signal passed at danger (SPAD) detection. The technology will never make the human factor irrelevant but it can help.

Railway travel is still far safer than traveling by road but these accidents make me wonder. Note the Bangkok Post article does not say anything about casualties.

Picapp Pictures of the Thai Royal Family

Here are some pictures from Picapp about the Thai Royal Family. There are some good old pictures here although none that I have not see before in Thailand. The Bureau of the Royal Household regularly publishes pictures. They seems to be little restriction on their reuse in Thailand as long as they are respectful.