Limited rides to Lopburi offered on Japan's Kiha 183 trains
The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) is offering one-day trips from Bangkok to Lopburi in the Northeast on the refurbished Kiha 183 diesel-powered trains from Japan.
The trips, available on February 11, 12, 18 and 19, will cost 599 baht and only 200 seats will be available each day.
The train leaves Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong Railway Station at 12.15pm and arrives in the historic city of Lopburi at 2.45pm. The return trip starts at 8.30pm and ends in Bangkok at 11.05pm.
The trip includes a sightseeing tour of the historical area of Lopburi, which dates back over 3,500 years ago, as well as cultural performances and light-and-sound shows.
Seventeen second-hand passenger train carriages from Japan’s Hokkaido Railway Company arrived at Laem Chabang Port in Chonburi last December, with SRT covering the shipment cost of 42.5 million baht.
The trains have been refurbished at SRT’s maintenance and repair centre in Bangkok's Makkasan area.
Carriages of the Kiha 183 series were manufactured between 1981 and 1982 and decommissioned in 2017. They had been used as limited express trains in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost prefecture.
With a maximum speed of 110kph, the trains were developed specially to withstand the harsh, snowy winters in northern Japan. The driver's cab of Kiha 183 is elevated for better visibility during snowfall. Its locomotive features a “slant nose” designed to keep snow out of the front of the train while on the move.
