Pailin said he had instructed the Airport Rail Link to start service at 5.30am instead of 6am so that services could accommodate 2,100 more passengers each day.

The electric train service is notorious for being overcrowded, especially during rush hour.

Suthep Phanpeng, vice president of Airport Rail Link, said the new start time of 5.30am could begin in February.

Suthep said statistics showed that about 70,000 passengers used the Airport Rail Link service each day from Monday to Thursday.

On an average Friday, the number of passengers rose to 80,000 and reduced to 50,000 each day on the weekends.

The transport minister added that he had instructed the Airport Rail Link to speed up the procurement process of seven more trains of 28 cars each with a budget of Bt4.4 billion.

The procurement may be completed in about a year or two, he said, adding new trains were needed to accommodate expected increases of passengers once the second phase of the Suvarnabhumi Airport expansion is finished.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Corporate/30334450