Pattaya-Hua Hin ferry service set early 2017

BANGKOK, November 21 (TNA) - Thailand's Marine Department, under the Ministry of Transport, plans to launch a new ferry route linking the west and the east of the Gulf of Thailand in January 2017, when the inaugural service set to be from Hua Hin to Pattaya and vice versa. The department's Director-General Sorasak Saensombat told journalists on Monday the Royal Passenger Liner Co., Ltd is the only firm that has applied for and been approved of running the ferry service on the new route. Sorasak said the company is, thus, required to immediately apply for a legal permit to operate the ferry service and to set its reasonal prices for an official approval before kicking off the service as of January 2017. For the first phase, the senior official noted, the company has proposed to operate two Catamaran Ferry, which has the carrying capacity of 150 and 262 passengers and use the traveling time of 1.40 hours per trip and it will operate two trips daily, from Hua Hin in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province in the Upper Thai South to Pattaya City in Chon Buri Province in the Thai East at 8:30-9:40am and from Pattaya to Hua Hin at 3:30-4:30pm. According to the senior official, the number of trips will be later increased next year. (TNA)