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[Expattaya]

"The opening of the high-speed rail link between Suvarnabhumi Airport |and inner Bangkok, scheduled for December 5, could be further delayed following this week's strike by railroad workers.

Hundreds of State Railway of Thailand employees returned to work yesterday evening after paralysing much of the national rail service for 36 hours.Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart said the SRT labour union had agreed to end the strike following the government's pledge that the union would participate in reorganising the money-losing state agency.

The SRT is in the process of setting up two wholly owned companies: one for train operations and the other for real-estate management.The company in charge of train operations will be responsible for running the 28.6-kilometre Airport Rail Link, which is due to open in December.

"I'm not sure if the rail link can still be opened as scheduled, because the process to form the SRT company will be halted until negotiations between the SRT union and the agency's top management are concluded," Transport Minister Sophon Saram said yesterday.He said he hoped the talks would not be protracted and could be concluded within two weeks, or else the SRT would face greater financial damage.

The country's international image would also take a further hit if the multibillion-baht elevated rail service between Suvarnabhumi Airport and the inner city did not start operation as scheduled, he added. The high-speed rail service between the international airport - located in the suburbs of Bangkok - and Makkasan Station was originally due to open in August, but construction delays led to a postponement."

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/06/24...ss_30105910.php

[Haloi]

Next they will tell us that the Swine Flu has caused another delay in completion. After that, the red shirt will be blamed. The fact that they waited almost until the airport was ready to open before planning a high-speed rail link seems to have escaped their attention.