Thread: Pattaya-Hua Hin ferry service to begin January 1 next year

The long-awaited ferry service between Pattaya and Hua Hin will be commenced on January 1 next year as a New Year gift for the people, the Department of Marine announced.

Director-general of the department Mr Sorasak Sansombat revealed the operation of the ferry service across the Bay of Thailand on a 113 kilometre distance from Pattaya to Hua Hin after it has picked Royal Passenger Liner as the operator of the service.

As the Bangkok Post reported, he said the company is the only operator which submitted tenders to operate shuttle service after the department invited interested investors to submit tenders to operate ferry service on the route from the eastern coast covering Pattaya and Sattahip to the western coast covering Cha-am, Hua Hin and Pranburi.

The department invited investors to submit tenders on August 9 this year and announced the winner on September 30.

He said the department’s selection committee has endorsed the company’s proposals and is now under the process to inspect the ferry and improvement of ports for safety and appropriateness.

The company was given a three month long period after being selected to produce all required documents to apply for the licence, which included the ship certification licence.

He said the service would be commenced on January 1, 2017 to serve as a New Year gift for the people.

Initially the company will use one ferry with capacity to load 150 passengers and will operate a round trip in the route.

Feasibility study of full ferry service which includes the loading of motor vehicles is expected to finish this month and made known to the public on December 15.

Under the company’s proposals, it will begin service from Pattaya to Hua Hin on a 113 kilometre long route using Catamaran Ferry which has a maximum speed of 27 knots, and can load 150 passengers at maximum.

The company plans to introduce another ferry with a capacity to load 260 passengers at a later date.

The ferry service will cut short travel time between the two popular resorts by almost two thirds.

The Pattaya-Hua Hin ferry service is part of the government’s East-West Ferry Project which aims to boost tourism and logistics between Chonburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan.

Earlier a promotional video which was reported in Thai language media gave a first glimpse of what the final ferry service may look like when it is fully operational by 2020.

Pattaya-Hua Hin ferry service to begin January 1 next year |

Could be the coming to the end of the very relaxed , unspoiled and peaceful Prachuap Khiri Khan.

A private enterprise with a passenger cat had a go at this about 6 years back. Didn't last long, not enough passengers and frequent rough seas keeping the boat in port didn't help. Anyway I couldn't see the demand for this service then, or now.

Ferry service fare between Pattaya-Hua Hin is set at 1,250 baht for a single trip

The boat fare for the 113-kilometre ferry service between Pattaya and Hua Hin which is currently set at 1,250 baht single trip for normal class is reasonable, said Mr Sornsak Saensombat, director-general of Marine Department, on Thursday.

He maintained that the fare rate is suitable with the cost and the operator of the ferry service which will begin on January 1 will make a profit of between 20-30 percent “which is not much”.

However, he said that, after six months of operations, the Marine Department would hold a meeting to assess the performance of the ferry service, its popularity among travelers vis-à-vis the fare rate.

If the occupancy seating rate for each trip averages 80-90 percent, Mr Sornsak said that the department would order the operator to reduce the fare rate.

The current fare rate of 1,250 baht per one single trip for a distance of 113 kilometre across the Gulf of Thailand is based on the assumption that each trip is about 50 percent full.

Ferry service fare between Pattaya-Hua Hin is set at 1,250 baht for a single trip - Thai PBS English News

What's the boats capacity?
Or is that a pointless question?

The reason why there has been no successful operator of this route before is because there is no demand for it that might sustain any profitability. Also, high seas in inclement weather renders any crossing by a catamaran travelling at 27 knots to be akin to torture of its passengers. Furthermore, for six months of the year there are no foreign tourists in Pattaya to speak of beyond low end Chink trash and I do not think this bottom-feeding scum will wish to part with over a thousand baht for trip on the briny.

Thai of course will not travel on it given that most Thai sojourning to Pattaya and Hua Hin for their weekend jollies etc are travelling from Bangkok.

The Thai are of course congenitally incapable of mounting any form of successful feasibility study for any venture and therefore are generally committed to madcap schemes from the outset, the stupidity of which only becomes apparent after the failure has already occurred.

I suspect the tendering of the contract process was the underlying aim of the exercise.

I heard that Hua Hin Brit expats looked down on Pattayan Brit expats for allegedly being lower in class

Adding a ferry link could prove to be a catalyst for scenes of possible hooliganism

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

Thai of course will not travel on it

any thai travelling to hua hin/pattaya will take the bus and mini bus to save the 1k baht

the ferry is likely to take 5 hours anyway

Originally Posted by DJ Pat

What's the boats capacity?
Or is that a pointless question?

Not pointless at all and health and safety checks

Adequate Crew Safety drills
Lifebelts,
muster stations and Lifeboat capacity
may with due consideration and contingency planning
be made
after first tragedy or two.

Originally Posted by PeeCoffee

Could be the coming to the end of the very relaxed , unspoiled and peaceful Prachuap Khiri Khan.

Na Mate,

The muppets find it hard to escape from Hua-Hin, the boat trip won't make any difference.

Originally Posted by DJ Pat

I heard that Hua Hin Brit expats looked down on Pattayan Brit expats for allegedly being lower in class

Adding a ferry link could prove to be a catalyst for scenes of possible hooliganism

Unless they're offering an OAP discount on the ferry I can't really see this inter city firm clash ruffling many feathers.

Now if they could find a way of making it duty free...

Everything about this heralded service is just so gimcrack and typically Thai in that half-arsed way they seem to achieve in most of their endeavours.

Only one outfit tendered for the contract but another has recently surfaced with a suspiciously grandiose plan but their provenance is somewhat obscure and it has yet to materialise any plans beyond mere fresh air.

The craft to commence service is an old boat which has had to be refurbished - a bit of paint no doubt and some new plastic seat covers but what of the turbines, jet/impellors/propellors?

And the voyage duration from sleaze town to sleepy hollow? The distance is apparently 113 kilometres and the craft has a maximum speed of 27 kts. In other reports the journey time by the company has been estimated at 1 hour 30 mins. Mmmmmm.......

Contrast this with the Brittany Ferry HSF 'Normandie Express' operating between Portsmouth and Cherbourg in the summer season - a distance of 94 miles in a vessel capable of 42 kts but the journey time is given of 3 hours.

They just cant help themselves, can they? Like children really, full of wild stupid optimism rooted in fantasy and wishful thinking.

Originally Posted by cyrille

Now if they could find a way of making it duty free...

or in International waters a CASINO? probably become self financing

^There actually was a ship with casino operating (briefly) out of Laem Chabang some 15 or more years ago. It'd go into international waters and return the next day so it was another way of doing a visa run!. Forget what ended it but it was some typical Thailand rort like the ships papers or licence to operate being forged, something like that.

Yeah, I remember that.

Used to advertise in the Post and The Nation.

Someone I worked with went on it.

Went bust owing quite a few people money didn't it?

the ferry made a test run to hua hin yesterday, but rough seas meant somchai the sailor man was unable to dock it at the pier.


http://www.facebook.com/pg/stickboybangkok/videos/

Originally Posted by DJ Pat

What's the boats capacity?
Or is that a pointless question?

Somewhere between 150 and 340 depending on which Thai Visa news update you read.

people who venture to Pattaya are usually a different breed to those who venture to Hua Hin

i could understand someone like Taxexile setting sail alone for a weekend of debauchery but i couldnt understand someone like seekingass taking the wingman to Hua Hin when he has Koh Chang down the road

Originally Posted by Dillinger

people who venture to Pattaya are usually a different breed to those who venture to Hua Hin

i could understand someone like Taxexile setting sail alone for a weekend of debauchery but i couldnt understand someone like seekingass taking the wingman to Hua Hin when he has Koh Chang down the road

I liked Hua Hin simply for the experience of travelling to it by train arriving in the mid afternoon and strolling down the main drag to our hotel from the station smelling the ozone and feeling the frisson of my childhood again when a trip to the seaside was an exciting event. Trouble is, after a few days of mooching about one begins to get a tad twitchy and pretty soon one yearns again for Bangkok. It just seems such a terrible bore of a place and out of season it is drearier than Eastbourne in November.

When we wanted a bit of sand and decent sea we used to go to Koh Samed, out of season of course, or Samui but these days we can't be arsed. In truth, the wingman and I relish our beach trips in Cornwall and Devon more. Driving through nice countryside to get there, picnics featuring Black farmer sausages, variable weather, changing skyscapes, eating real ice cream, rootling around rock pools and gambolling in the surf in me skins fighting with the fucking board are all much more rewarding now.
Blasé now with palm trees, tropical sunsets and water at blood temperature.

Originally Posted by DJ Pat

What's the boats capacity?
Or is that a pointless question?

Probably. Cram in as many as turn up at the dock.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

Trouble is, after a few days of mooching about one begins to get a tad twitchy and pretty soon one yearns again for Bangkok.

That must be particularly trying since you live in Pattaya.

Originally Posted by misskit

Initially the company will use one ferry with capacity to load 150 passengers

If thats ok there will be 450 on the next trip

It just seems such a terrible bore of a place and out of season it is drearier than Eastbourne in November.

out of season is when the town comes into its own.

the shirtless hordes have left, the traffic is easy, the air is cleaner, the locals are happier, parking is a doddle and the town begins to resemble the sleepy little place it was 10 years ago.

in the restaurants, the service is better, the food is fresher and there are always tables, even at the beachside places, and the monsoon electrical storms advancing from myanmar flickering away over the hills provide a spectacular backdrop.

Indeed, whatever but I always seem to get bitten by mossies, the restaurants are mostly ersatz and that sleepy quietude which normally I seek in other quarters generally amounts to a listless tedium.

Also, there is a quarter where the beer bars converge, but I don't mean the whore places, near the beach where farang congregate and shoot the breeze. Unfortunately, they have proven to be the most insufferable and sanctimonious bunch of self satisfied bores it has been my misfortune to meet.

Of course, here in Pattaya one generally only meets trash and blue collar oiks trying their best but at least they have a certain honesty and occasionally a rustic charm about them.

Ah well.