Oriental Express off the rails

BANGKOK, 30 July 2014: Asia’s most expensive train ride, the Oriental Express, came to serious grief, earlier this week, when the train derailed in Thailand’s Ratchaburi province. It was on its way to Kanchanaburi’s River Kwai as part of its journey south to Singapore.
State Railway of Thailand officials are investigating the derailment of five carriages.It took most of Monday ad Tuesday to clear the track.
Two Japanese passengers were injured when a section of the luxury train derailed while negotiating a curve in Ban Pong district of Ratchaburi province at around 1030 on Sunday.
The two Japanese women were sent to local hospital where police described their injuries as “light.”
However, the luxury train company has so far not made any statement on how it compensated passengers or looked after the two injured passengers.
The train was travelling from Bangkok’s Hua Lampong station to Singapore. It was carrying 77 passengers mainly European and Asian tourists who paid a premium to be transported through the country in the lap of luxury.
Officials from the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) said heavy rain may have caused the train track to sink and widen, causing the derailment.
Thailand’s has a very poor record for train derailments.
The four-day Bangkok – Singapore train journey costs approximately THB83,000 per person. The same train trip, without the luxury can be completed for around THB1,500 using a combination of Thai and Malaysia trains.

Sourced: ttrweekly