Bombardier Transportation (Signal) Sweden AB is confident in promoting its Thai office as a regional engineering hub to serve potential train-signalling projects in Asia.
Bangkok Post quoted Mr. Staffan Hakanson, president of Bombardier Transportation Sweden as saying that the Thai base would assist in a number of signalling works of Bombardier Transportation worldwide.
“Thailand is very important for us. We have transferred our Swedish technology for rail signalling to the Thai side since 1997. Our products are designed and developed by Thai engineers to suit the regional environmental conditions,” said Mr. Hakanson.
Bombardier Transportation Signal (Thailand) Ltd was established in 1997. The company currently employs 100 staff, of whom 85 are engineers and product development specialists. The Thai staff have experience in various signalling fields such as electronic interlocking, automatic train protection, traffic management and waysides.
In 1998, the Thai subsidiary worked on the State Railway of Thailand’s Hua Mark re-signalling project, with design and installation of one of the country’s first electronic interlocking systems.
Michael Thulin, sales manager for Asia-Pacific at Bombardier Transportation (Signal) Sweden, said since its inception the Thai base had taken part in developing and providing products for several rail-signalling projects won by Bombardier Transportation around the world, including China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Bombardier Transportation (Signal) Sweden, a part of Canada-based Bombardier Inc, offers complete turnkey rail systems including rolling stock, signalling, infrastructure installation, finance and maintenance services.
“Asia has a lot of possibilities with [its] 3.46 billion population and 50 mega-cities where they need public transport. At the same time, average economic growth has stayed between 7% and 8% — higher than in Europe,” Mr. Hakanson said.
Bombardier Transportation Signal (Thailand) is looking to have a hand in future rail-signalling projects locally. Potential projects include the train link to Suvarnabhumi Airport, the high-speed train project, phase four of the SRT signalling project, the Orange Line subway in Bangkok and the Hopewell elevated-train project (if and when it is revived by the SRT).
The company is waiting for a final result on bidding for phases two and three of the SRT signalling project for its double-track system.
“The SRT needs to improve its railway system around Bangkok and throughout the country,” Mr Thulin said, “but we’re worried that the SRT land scandal may delay some bidding projects.”
However, Mr Thulin said he was optimistic that all urgent train projects would be accelerated under the policy of Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit who has made the improvement of the SRT service one of his top priorities.
