Thailand Railways Timetables and Online Booking

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Mike

New web site SRT Thailand

State Railway Thailand

The State Railway of Thailand(SRT) has just introduced a new web site for Thailand Railways timetables and online booking. The new site at first glance looks great since it combines, the old SRT timetables/information site(now unavailable), the newer online booking site Thai Railway Ticket(unavailable since September 2010) and some new features including the airport link and a train tracking system.

The front page of the site appears to be in dual languages Thai/English. However once you start to try and access links from this page finding sections in English becomes difficult, although it is apparent that the “Timetable” and “Fares” sections are intended to be available in that language since they have EN in the file title despite defaulting to Thai. While the final section “Download Timetable” works fine the resulting download is in Thai.

Since all the old sites have now been taken down access to Thailand Railways train/fare information in English is now very limited and for the majority of important journeys no longer available to travellers.

Equally the section of the site that replaces Thai Railway Ticket(online booking),  proclaims “60 day advance booking” and “check timetable and fares,” in English, only to reveal a drop down station menu in Thai. So unless you can read Thai script then you cannot use the online booking service.

If the language and navigation issues can be sorted out the site actually holds some promise since a lot of additional stuff has been introduced, including timetables for the “international train” from Bangkok through Butterworth(Penang), Kuala Lumpar and Singapore(includes return timetable) as well as  timetables for the  Wongwian-Mahachai-Ban Laem-Mae Klong commuter line too.

Interestingly it appears that the trains that run from Thonburi station(Bangkok Noi) to Namtok for Kanchanaburi and the “Death Railway” have not been included as a separate section, however trains 257 or 259(train numbers for this route) are included in “Southern Timetable.” The timetable for these trains does have an English version which is only visible if you click on the train number in the Thai timetable.

Confusing or what?

So until they(Thailand Railways) get the site sorted out I would suggest that anyone wanting to use Thailand Railways timetables and online booking revert to contacting SRT either with the contact form(in Thai only) or by e-mail to Info@railway.co.th. Customers in Thailand can ring 1690 or simply visit their nearest station.

Updated: August 1st 2011.

New on-line booking service now open at Thai Railway Ticket.

The Thailand Railways referred to in this article remains open too and is the only source for full timetables.

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  • http://ricks-eastasiablog.typepad.com/ricks_east_asia_blog/2011/03/bangkok-magician-puts-tricks-in-your-hands.html Siam Rick

    Fortunately, Mike, seat61.com web site still has all the skeds in English. Link for the SRT trains is at http://seat61.com/Thailand.htm.

    That said, the SRT’s new web site looks very promising, with suggested train tours. Now all the SRT has to do is replace its entire rolling stock! Maybe those billions that are going to the Thai Navy’s new submarine fleet could have been sent to the SRT.

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Rick a good point since I did check the site(Man in Seat 61). So folk can still see times of trains in English. Thanks for adding the info. Hopefully SRT will pull their collective digits out and get things running smoothly.

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