Six southern trains back in service

Meanwhile, labour union members of the local State Railway of Thailand (SRT) oper¬ation at the Hat Yai railway junction in Songkhla denied they had burned wooden sleepers on purpose, but said the abandoned sleepers accidentally caught fire.

The six trains which resumed services are: No 171 BangkokSungai Golok, No 169 BangkokYala, No 35 Bangkok to Butterworth in Malaysia, No 172 Sungai GolokBangkok, No 170 YalaBangkok and No 36 ButterworthBangkok.

All shortdistance local trains from Hat Yai to the lower South remained suspended.

Hat Yai SRT union leader Wirun Sakaekhum said more trains could resume services today or in the next few days, depending on how many more trains could be repaired and undergo maintenance.

Wirun also said all trains would resume service if the SRT management complied with the fivepoint demands of protesting railway workers, including repair works and provision of spare parts, and especially a halt to the practice of stationing policemen on trains from Bangkok to Hat Yai.

On Piya Maharaj Day yesterday, which honours King Rama V who founded the SRT, all protesting workers paid their respects to the late king and pledged to "pro¬tect the SRT with their lives".

Larpsak Laphasojkij, a Democrat MP for Songkhla who met the protesting workers, quoted them as saying that a fire on Thursday that burnt abandoned sleepers was an accident.

"It could only be an accident. It was not set up by the workers or anyone in protest against the suspension of train services," he added.

A group of vendors in several markets in Hat Yai and students marched to the railway junction to show their support for the protesting workers. The vendors gave a large amount of food to the workers to feed them during their strike.

Najmudeen Uma, a Matuphum Party MP for Narathiwat and a Muslim, said he had talked with protesting workers to negotiate for services of certain trains from the deep South to Hat Yai railway junction so that Muslim pilgrims could leave Thailand from Songkhla Airport for the hajj in Saudi Arabia on time this year.

Wirun said the suspension of the service would be short term and apologised to passengers "for the inconvenience".