By KUNA,
Kuala Lumpur : As train services continued to be suspended nationwide for the fifth day Monday, members of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) resigned en masse, the Thai News Agency (TNA) reported.
The train services were disrupted when national railways workers labour union took leave as a show of support for the anti-government protest of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD).
TNA said SRT Board Chairman Somsak Boonthong made the announcement that all board members chose to resign to show their responsibility to the railway strike.
The news agency in its report from Bangkok quoted Somsak as saying the board did not agree with the action taken by the national railway workers labour union, that associated their jobs to national political issues not specifically related to their employment, and caused much trouble to the public.
Seventy-six SRT rail route services nationwide were disrupted, with many services suspended altogether, paralyzing railway cargo transport.
The absence of many hundreds of key state railway employees, including train operators, engineers, conductors and various technicians taking sick leave had halted the trains’ services.
TNA said out of 244 trains nationwide, 115 trains had stopped operation so far. However, it was reported that the northern route had resumed service at 10 am Monday morning.
More trains in northern routes were expected to operate Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, TNA reported that SRT governor Yutthana Thapcharoen had negotiated with representatives of railway union in Nakhon Sawan and Saraburi attempting to get technical and engineering staff to resume services of at least 40-50 trains a day.
Yutthana is scheduled to meet union representatives at Nakhon Ratchasima railway station Monday afternoon, where seven locomotives were moved to block the tracks, making it possible for the northern provinces to be served. The halt in railway services had already caused losses of more than Bt60 million (about US1.75 million) to the SRT directly, with more losses in the private business sector and to employees who could not get to work.