Pros and cons of hi-speed trains

I think a hi-speed train linking Pattaya with Bangkok will be a great thing for the resort, but it matters where the station actually will be. The current one is too far out of town. Presumably there will be an overhead railway linking the station with civilization? All the research on trains worldwide suggests the exact location of stops is the key feature. (Harold Bride)

I notice your photograph of the station on page one of Pattaya Today (May 1) makes it look like the ghost train halt in Arthur Askey's 1940 film The Ghost Train. For my money, Pattaya doesn't need a new railway station. It needs a proper clean-up, properly policed traffic systems and an environmental policy which will make it a green city. I have seen the plans, but where is the progress? (John Stone)

I was disappointed to read that the link to U Tapao airport is in the second stage, not due for completion until the 2020s. U Tapao needs developing fast to take some of the strain off Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang, but the route from Bangkok to Pattaya needs a prompt extension to U Tapao. If that happens, then we really will be in the 21st century. (KH)

No hi-speed train in the world runs at a profit. Ask the Chinese or the Japanese who are the experts in this sort of technology. People love travelling quickly and goods can go by rail domestically which now have to be moved by truck which is environmentally damaging. It's OK for Thailand to invest nearly a trillion baht in four rail projects as long as it's clear the investment is only the beginning. The maintenance costs and subsidies will be a financial burden for decades to come. (Andy F)

Surely Pattaya is big enough as it is. The proposed rail system will presumably boost numbers but all the extra people have to live in the city once they leave the railway carriage. So, in effect, Pattaya will become ever more crowded, more polluted and more unpleasant to live in. I think my days are numbered here. (David Hetherington)

The route to Pattaya can only be understood in a wider context. The future of Thailand lies with its ASEAN neighbors and with China, the real economic partner. I'm sure somebody somewhere is thinking out how to link Beijing with all the mainland ASEAN capitals within the next 20 years. Those Brits and Americans moaning about the lost world they think Pattaya has become are missing the essential points. (GVN)

The problem in my eyes is whether the railway will actually be built. Once the government gets its hands on the 2 trillion baht loan, can we be sure what will happen in a country bedeviled by corruption and mismanagement. (Derek Jordan)

I often read in the press or see on TV that Thai trains have been dislocated in their schedule by floods and even by falling rocks. I don't see how bullet trains will overcome delays as the new track is apparently going to be placed alongside the existing one. (MG)

Surely an alternative to new trains would be to properly overhaul existing track, bring in new trains and introduce new-technology signaling and safety equipment. These solutions would not cost anywhere near the sums needed to build bullet trains. (Jean T)