New Bangkok-Pattaya train allows day trips to the resort town

Thailand is set to expand its transit system with a new, faster connection to the resort town of Pattaya. Photo: Sergi Reboredo/dpa

A quick day trip from Bangkok to Thailand’s resort town of Pattaya has always been an impossibility for visitors. Anyone who wanted to visit the popular seaside town 150km south-east of the capital, had to get one of few weekday trains and spend the night.

“The timing makes it impossible for a one-day trip. Hardly any tourists get on it,” says Oratai Suwannatas, tourism marketing executive at the State Railway of Thailand. Currently, the morning train from Bangkok reaches Pattaya at 11.20am, while the only train from Pattaya to Bangkok leaves at 1.35pm.