Caretaker PM inspects train services in Thai North

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND, December 13 (TNA) - Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is still in the Thai North, inspecting train services of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) which were resumed early this month after more than-three month-repair. Accompanied by Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi, Caretaker Interior Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan, Caretaker Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt and SRT Governor Prapat Chongsa-nguan, Yingluck, who is strongly pressured to step down by anti-government protesters, boarded a special train from the Chiang Mai to the Lampang railway stations on Friday, amid tight security provided by officers on duty and cheering people along the route to show their support to her and to boost her morale. The SRT governor then told reporters that the northern trains ran slower on the track because they could not use their maximal speeds, acknowledging that a train trip from Chiang Mai to Lampang had taken just over an hour but for the time being it took 2-3 hours. The SRT governor said the caretaker prime minister was invited to inspect the northern train services so that policies would be later laid down to solve remaining problems. Derailments of northern trains had repeated over the past year and the SRT governor attributed them to poor conditions of ageing railway tracks, some of which have been used for more than 40 years, and to impacts from Thailand's severe and widespread flooding in 2011, which has weakened the foundations of local railway tracks. The caretaker transport minister also told reporters that his ministry invited the caretaker prime minister to board the train to see problems and to give instructions to solve them, noting that the train trip had nothing to do with the Yingluck government's new high-speed train projects. (TNA)