Thailand's northern train services to resume next month

Thailand's northbound trains are scheduled to resume services on Dec. 1 after a more than two-month closure for maintenance, the country's railway authorities said Thursday. Prapas Chongsa-nguan, governor of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT), confirmed that 90 percent of maintenance work has been completed. He said barricades have been installed in four tunnels to prevent the fall of a train in case of derailment, with ventilation systems put into place to allow passengers to walk through the tunnels to the exit. The SRT has closed a significant stretch of the rail route between Sila At in Uttaradit and Chiang Mai, which is popular among tourists, since Sept. 16 following a number of derailments that caused many injuries of both Thai and foreign passengers. According to Prapas, the SRT is seeking to buy new locomotives for the northern trains. He reassured that the accident rate would be significantly reduced after the maintenance.