This essay, however, will evaluate the long-distance rail services offered in two countries which have quite similar sizes and populations – Thailand and France.
the similarities between the Thai and French rail networks are outweighed by the differences. Thailand relies on ageing diesel locomotives and imported rolling stock to provide services over track which is in desperate need of upgrading. France, on the contrary, has made large investments in the development of its Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) system which uses the world’s most modern high speed electric trains on specially constructed high speed rail lines (SNCF.com, 2012). In fact, one critical difference between the systems is that while Thai freight and passenger trains share the same track, with all the operational limitations that are caused, the TGV lines are used only for passenger services.
The speed of the trains is also a huge difference. Thai trains rarely exceed 100 km/h while their French counterparts spend much of their time travelling over three times faster (SNCF.com, 2013). This is one reason why passenger numbers on the French network are very high, with very frequent services, while in Thailand the passenger numbers are low, and there are comparatively few daily trains. The French TGV also has an excellent safety record despite the high number of services operating at very high speeds. In contrast, the Thai network has encountered frequent accidents, with derailments commonplace due to the poor condition of the infrastructure (Bangkok Post, 2013).