Airport Rail Link seeks to be independent from SRT
Bangkok:- The acting chief of Airport Rail Link Co Ltd aims at making profit after it is separated into an independent firm from the State Railway of Thailand.
Pakorn Tungjetsakao, acting director of Airport Rail Link, said he is in negotiation with the SRT to separate Airport Rail Link assets from the SRT.
If the SRT agrees, the Airport Rail Link will get to manage its own nine electric trains plus seven more trains which are now under procurements.
Moreover, the Airport Rail Link will receive an operation fund of Bt1.86 billion that the Finance Ministry has committed.
With its own assets and operation fund, the Airport Rail Link will be able to manage its service more efficiently and will start making profit soon, Pakorn added.
He said the Airport Rail Link planned to obtain loans for Bt5.152 billion to buy more trains for the third and fourth lots of procurements. The procurements would be completed in 2031.
He added that the Airport Rail Link services will be expanded from Phayathai station to Don Mueang airport and from the Suvarnabhumi station to the U-Tapao airport and the company will hire 400 more personnel.
Last year, Airport Rail Link had a total expenditure of Bt900 million because it had to buy spare parts for maintenance while its income was Bt535 million. So, its operation saw a loss of Bt365 million.
Pakorn said Airport Rail Link decided to stop its service from midnight to 00:30 am after it found that there were only 20 passengers per trip in the period. The cancellation of the service after midnight would begin on April 1.