Since February this year Thai Railways or The State Railway of Thailand(SRT) to be more correct, has been offering the option of booking tickets online. Slowly more trains/routes have been added, although the system is currently limited to buying tickets on Express and Special Express trains in either sleeping or sitting 2nd class air con carriages.
This facility is provided by a secure web site, Thai railway ticket, on which you need to register before bookings can be made. Payments can be made by credit card from 60 days before departure up to 3 days before departure. For bookings made 3 days or less other methods must be used e.g. visit station or use email. The web site comes in a Thai and English version and is relatively easy to navigate. Recently the facility to book up to four passengers has been added and tickets can be printed off when the booking is complete.
Unfortunately anyone wishing to travel from Bangkok to Singapore on the International train cannot use the system for the whole journey, the best you can do is book Bangkok to Hat Yai online. A safer bet especially if you wish to travel to Butterworth (Malaysia) for Penang is either to book in Thailand at a railway station or by email to Thai Railways. There is however a train from Hat Yai to Kuala Lumpur which could be booked at Hat Yai.
Despite a lot of negative reports about the SRT, privatisation and safety following the Hua Hin derailment, travel by train in Thailand remains a safe, relaxed and a cheap way to see the country. With the opening up of online bookings, especially for overseas visitors , I fully expect traffic to grow further.
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2 comments:
I've done a lot of traveling by train in Switzerland, perhaps once in the US, and a handful of times in Malaysia (KL-Penang, and KL-Singapore, I think). The Swiss trains are great - even the old ones are clean and pretty comfortable. If you have the bad luck of sitting in or going through the smoking section, though.. hack hack cough cough nasty! :p
Hey, didn't you have a guest post idea relating to trains? I've been so discombobulated with all the moves we've made recently, I have yet to get back into any semblance of regular blogging :( But the offer's still open if you'd like :)
Lynne nice to see you, I am surprised you can still smoke on trains in Switzerland!
I had forgotten about the post to be honest, I would love to contribute to your excellent blog.
I will email you.
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