PUBLISHED: 18 Feb 2025 at 04: 42
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the State Railway of Thailand ( SRT ) will make a proposal to lift the alcohol sales on trains at a meeting of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee on Friday.
A proposal to permit the sale of alcohol on trains at specific times was rejected at the previous meeting by the commission under the supervision of the Public Health Ministry.
The committee’s chair, public health secretary Somsak Thepsutin, claimed the plan had not been put to use after a study found it could do more harm than good. The SRT is never giving up, according to the cause, and intends to resubmit the proposal on Friday.
The SRT may ask the council to acquire enforcing exemptions from the ban, especially for holiday trains, in train stations or on trains, to encourage regional tourism.
According to Dr. Udomsak Sae-Ngow, a researcher at the Centre of Alcohol Studies ( CAS ), the majority of people in favor of lifting the alcohol sales ban on trains, according to a previous poll.
The survey, which involved 3, 055 train passengers at 25 train stations across the nation in August last year, revealed that 80 % of occasional drinkers and 67 % of regular drinkers were against the proposal.
Their main issues involved vacation security, public anger and the risk of physical abuse, with 86 % of the respondents recalling the rape and murder of a 13-year-old customer on a train in 2017, according to Dr Udomsak.
He claimed that the affair had led to the current ban.
The committee was instructed by Thirapat Khahawong, the representative of a system that aims to stop alcohol’s adverse effects, to give public health precedence over the needs of the alcohol industry. He even expressed sorrow with the government for relying on alcohol consumption to boost the economy despite its detrimental effects on society.
Hotels and other alcohol-related establishments called on the state last week to repeal the 1972 2-5pm liquor sales ban, which was put in place to prevent civil servants from having while at work, claiming it was outdated.