Police help end impasse in Hat Yai

Railway Police and volunteers free this train to become the first to run from Songkhla’s Hat Yai to Pattani in the past 10 days./Nation/Santipap Ramasutra

The weeklong lockdown of Hat Yai Junction was broken yesterday afternoon when more than 100 armed Railway Police and volunteers surged past striking workers to seize a train after the latest round of negotiations with the labour union failed.

Since the union leaders urged their followers not to use force, the train departed Hat Yai station within 10 minutes and headed for Pattani, raising hopes that rail services in the three southernmost provinces would finally resume soon.

"The engineer who just took the train out of Hat Yai station has broken the rules. Clearly, his experience along the route is less than 10 years," said Wiroon Sakaekhum, head of the Hat Yai branch of the State Railway of Thailand labour union.

Train services have been frozen in the deep South since October 16 and the SRT still cannot confirm when operations would return to normal.

As the suspension has dragged on in the three southernmost provinces, locals are groaning.

"My sons have to head back to Bangkok for the beginning of the new semester," Sanan Jankaew said. "If we have to catch the train at Hat Yai [instead of Yala], our travel expenses will be higher. It hurts us badly during such economic hard times".

Somkij Anantamek, chairman of the Southern Thai Chamber of Commerce, said trains were a central part of locals' daily lives.

"People in the three southernmost provinces use trains to transport their fruit and go to work. The suspension has had a serious impact on locals," he said.

SRT governor Yuthana Thapcharoen said some routes, from Hat Yai to the three border provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, could not open as usual, but trains could be sent to Pattani and then back to Hat Yai.

"We have assigned those responsible for this matter in the southern provinces to discuss with the SRT's union about coming back to work because the 12 locomotives to send back to Bangkok's Makkasan Station for repair are already completed," he said.

"Once such things are ready in terms of equipment safety and [personal] safeguards from police and soldiers, there should be no excuse for SRT's workers to stay off the job. Those who are insubordinate will have to be discharged as the maximum punishment," he said.

 "The SRT has suffered Bt41.58 million in losses from the closure of some routes for the week to October 15. Of this, Bt29.2 million was from passengers while the remaining Bt12.38 million was from freight transport."

Tawalyarat Onsira, deputy permanent secretary of the Transport Ministry and also the SRT chairman, said the main reason that the SRT could not run trains on some routes was there were some barriers to operating them.

"The transport minister will report to the Cabinet on Wednesday and will also seek a way to resolve this problem," he said.

Thongyoo Khongkhan, president of the Import Export Transport Association, said the group could not agree with the labour union's work stoppage. This has disrupted the logistics of the country. Trains on the Lat Krabang-Malaysia route could not transport 1,500 containers of goods and products a day worth Bt30 million.

This would double the transport cost for products that go by that route, to US$650 or Bt20,000 per container, because they would be shifted to trucks instead.

"Though about 80-90 per cent of railways are in operation, some routes in the three provinces are not, so freight could not be transported in Thailand and beyond to Malaysia and Singapore, especially raw materials used in the electric appliance industry. Initially, there was at least Bt10 million in damages," he said.