The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) (, abbrev. รฟท., ) is the state-owned rail operator under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport in Thailand. History The SRT was founded as the Royal State Railways of Siam (RSR) in 1890. King Chulalongkorn ordered the Department of Railways to be set up under the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning. Construction of the Bangkok-Ayutthaya railway (), the first part of the Northern Line, was started in 1890 and inaugurated on 26 March 1897. The Thonburi-Phetchaburi line (), later the Southern Line, was opened on 19 June 1903. The first railway commander of the RSR was Prince Purachatra Jayakara (Krom Phra Kamphaeng Phet Akkarayothin). The Northern Line was originally built as , but in September 1919 it was decided to standardize on and the Northern Line was regauged during the next ten years. On 1 July 1951, RSR changed its name to the present State Railway of Thailand, which has status as a state enterprise agency. On 7 April 2020, the Thai cabinet named Nirut Maneephan as the new chief of the SRT, the 29th governor in its history. SRT had of track, all of it meter gauge except the Airport Link. Nearly 91% was single-track railway (3,685 km) while 6%, mainly important sections around Bangkok, were double-track railway () and 3% were triple-track railway (). The network serves 47 provinces and around 35 million passengers annually. The passenger count is expected to double by 2032, when the network grows 6,463 km to serve 61 provinces. SRT issues Financial performance The SRT has suffered a loss every year since it was turned into a state-owned enterprise under the Transport Ministry in 1951. The worst financially performing state enterprise, it reported a preliminary loss of 7.58 billion baht in 2010. In the fiscal year ending 30 September 2016, the military government budgeted 7,600 million baht for SRT infrastructure investments to be used for track duplication, an extension of Bangkok's elevated railway, and construction of bridges, fences, and track improvements, however, the SRT had managed to disburse only 53 percent of its allotted investment budget of 60 billion baht, compares with an average disbursement rate of 80 percent by Thailand's other 55 state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Disbursement rate is seen as an indicator of efficient management. SRT's budget from government for FY2020 was 13,574.9 million baht, increased from 9,087 million baht in