Bangkok’s new passenger train terminal starts operations

By TASSANEE VEJPONGSA and JERRY HARMER
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand is ushering in a new age of train travel as Southeast Asia’s biggest railway station officially begins operations. The government says the huge, modern development on the edge of central Bangkok will bolster the country’s position as a regional hub and boost its economy. Almost all of Thailand’s long-distance domestic and international rail services will pass through the new station, officially called Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal, on which work began 10 years ago. But many Thais are lamenting the shunting aside of the previous terminal, Hua Lamphong Station on the edge of Bangkok’s Chinatown in the middle of the capital. But it will still host some local and eastern lines of the state railway.