Social media criticism erupted this week after the railway company on Monday announced its plan to hire a company to ship the donated trains from Japan to Thailand. Some Facebook users with high followings began asking why Thailand must pay the 42.5 million baht for the used trains. In a prior statement, the SRT said it received donated trains from Japan. It noted that it had earlier received a number of donated railway carriages from JR-West. Ekkarat Si-arayanphong, director of the SRT's public relations centre, said a recent inspection of the 17 donated train carriages found they were in very good condition.

Source: Bangkok Post September 10, 2021 22:30 UTC