Asia Era One sets Airport Rail Link extension terms

Seems this is a case where a signed contract

.....is the start of negotiations !

Just now, Jim Blue said:

Seems this is a case where a signed contract

.....is the start of negotiations !

It's called moving the goalposts here. Not unusual.

Reading the above damning assessment of the maintenance state makes me very confident in using the service. Not.

Used to take that trains nearly daily, and never experienced any drama, apart from for a while a slowdown between Latkrabang and Suvarnabhumi when they were working on the tracks there... From memory I can only recall one incident when train failed between Ramkhamhaeng and Makkasan stations and passengers had to walk to the station on the tracks.

Has anything else happened that I've missed? Or is this just a plot to make the "other side" look bad?

The transit link is a farce. In comparison, I can take the century old Picadilly line from Heathrow T2 to my workplace without bother. I was off the aircraft, through immigration and onboard the Tube in 35 minutes, and in South Kensington 35 minutes later, all for 5 pound 60 in peak morning rush. Never once have I been able to have a proper seamless journey with the Bangkok airport link. major disappointment. It's not particularly time saving taking the airport link from central Bangkok.

32 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

that is a big problem all over Thailand.. They are bad in maintenance with a result that as soon problems occur they don't have an answer to solve it immediately... and of course budget limits. A lot of money is being thrown away on all kind things but for important things there is no money.. committees. meetings, kick off's, etc etc, consuming a lot of money that could be used better. Although nobody will hear me my advice is always, it is not the amount of money you have, but how you spend it, which causes problems.

I think it's all those things to some extent. But the overseas supplier - Siemens or Bombardier, etc - would have completed a deal with a full suite of things attached like maintenance, mechanic/technician training, related travel. But it's possible that some of that didn't happen due to corruption, neglegence or both. The Airport Express was the key component of the Airport Link. It's disappearance from service turned it into just another elevated MRT commuter train that also had an airport stop.

Because many overseas arrivals think it's an express train they get on it planning to switch to the BTS Skytrain at Phaya Thai Station. With their suitcases and kids, etc. It's a real sh!tshow there during rush hours. The BTS is already packed. The Airport Link is now only barely useful for travel to the airport if you go alone and with carry on only. A family with luggage should always take a taxi or a Grab car. But they don't know that until they are in the middle of the crowd.

Edited Friday at 03:25 AM5 days by ronnie50

1 hour ago, Patong2021 said:

It's not particularly time saving taking the airport link from central Bangkok.

Guess it depends on time of day. In my case, and I lived stone throw away from Ratchaprarop Airport Link, the train would save me between half an hour and 2 hours, depending on the time of day and the traffic on the Rama 9 road. Right now, if I were still there, it would take a few hours just to get off that road given all the construction in the area, while the train is still just 25 minutes all the way into the terminal, plus up to 12 minutes wait between the trains.

To me, it was far more reliable than taxi. And if taking Grab... I'd be at the airport before someone accepted my ride and showed up to pick me up. Bangkok does have several "centers" so experience may be different where you were staying.

SRT says it all. A lumbering bureaucratic organization. Expensive rolling stock cannibalized for spares is the norm.

1 hour ago, tomazbodner said:

Guess it depends on time of day. In my case, and I lived stone throw away from Ratchaprarop Airport Link, the train would save me between half an hour and 2 hours, depending on the time of day and the traffic on the Rama 9 road.

Yes, but that Asoke-Petchburi intersection (where the bus was hit by the train), is quite possibly the absolute worst traffic snarl in Bangkok. The train would make sense in your case, or MRT to a station with less traffic jams and hail a taxi.

8 hours ago, ronnie50 said:

I think it's all those things to some extent. But the overseas supplier - Siemens or Bombardier, etc - would have completed a deal with a full suite of things attached like maintenance, mechanic/technician training, related travel. But it's possible that some of that didn't happen due to corruption, neglegence or both. The Airport Express was the key component of the Airport Link. It's disappearance from service turned it into just another elevated MRT commuter train that also had an airport stop.

Because many overseas arrivals think it's an express train they get on it planning to switch to the BTS Skytrain at Phaya Thai Station. With their suitcases and kids, etc. It's a real sh!tshow there during rush hours. The BTS is already packed. The Airport Link is now only barely useful for travel to the airport if you go alone and with carry on only. A family with luggage should always take a taxi or a Grab car. But they don't know that until they are in the middle of the crowd.

Anyone with a family who even thinks about taking the airlink is nuts. First, they obviously didn't do their homework, and second, who with kids who have been cooped up in a plane for hours is insane enough to think riding the link is the best idea? Get a taxi, shove your stuff into it, including family, get straight to the hotel, and then relax.

I am still confused about the problems with the DMK - Utapao system.

There is a relatively simple way to resolve it.

First, they messed up the line at DMK, but that was due to decades of bad planning.

The solution, although not the best, is to run a line or a shuttle on the ground from DMK to Sai Yud. People can then take the BTS to Phaya Thai and get the airlink. They extend the airlink along the major highway to Pattaya and then to U-Tapao. There is no land that has to be appropriated, as there is room between the lines of the highway.

It may not be as fast as a direct route but it will definitely do the job.

Edited Friday at 11:40 AM4 days by kingstonkid

11 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

Reading the above damning assessment of the maintenance state makes me very confident in using the service. Not.

Used to take that trains nearly daily, and never experienced any drama, apart from for a while a slowdown between Latkrabang and Suvarnabhumi when they were working on the tracks there... From memory I can only recall one incident when train failed between Ramkhamhaeng and Makkasan stations and passengers had to walk to the station on the tracks.

Has anything else happened that I've missed? Or is this just a plot to make the "other side" look bad?

No, nothing else has happened. There are the occasional slow downs (the curve after Lat Krabang you mentioned, between Lat Krabang and Ban Thap Chang, and near RCA where the track splits to go down to the maintenance depot being the three I remember - but they are temporary and as all trains do the same it doesn't affect intervals), but generally it runs well, and I used to take it a lot, and still do. I am heading the airport on Monday morning and I wouldn't consider a cab for a minute - train all the way!

Yes, it is busy at rush hour, no doubt. Going in to town in the morning or going out of town in the evening. Not a massive problem for arrivals as you are getting on an empty train at Suvarnabhumi.

For me it's still a good service and ridiculously cheap. However the whole DMK - BKK - Utapao saga is an embarrassment.

An inflammatory post using profane language has been removed.

The entire system needs a complete overhaul. Spouse and I are in Bangkok and have been riding the MRT and BTS. We never ride at rush hour but even riding on off-times, the trains are still horribly crowded--so crowded that people have to exit the train temporarily to give enough room for other passengers to exit. Lord knows what it's like at rush hour. The MRT Blue Line, which we use a lot, is always way too crowded. 4-car trains just don't hack it now--if they ever did.

The ARL is both vital and lousy. We use it to go to the airport as we live right next to Makkasan and it's always horribly crowded, too. We always have to stand the whole way while trying to hold our luggage from bumping into the other passengers. To top it off, the train is way too slow and stops at way too many stops. Awful. We would gladly pay much more than the current fare for reserved seats. We could take a taxi but we worry about traffic delays, thinking there would be less chance of missing a flight with the train--but maybe need to rethink that. Thailand needs to spend the money to make the airport transit a pleasant experience for tourists. With the current operator looking to bail, it's a good time to look for another operator to do a much better job.

They need to bring back the Airport Express train. It would help with congestion by better separating the air travelers from the commuters. Giving both groups more room. Particularly in high season.

24 minutes ago, newnative said:

The entire system needs a complete overhaul. Spouse and I are in Bangkok and have been riding the MRT and BTS. We never ride at rush hour but even riding on off-times, the trains are still horribly crowded--so crowded that people have to exit the train temporarily to give enough room for other passengers to exit. Lord knows what it's like at rush hour.

The BTS is getting worse and worse with overcrowding. It doesn't matter what time of day. It just always seems to be packed. And in the afternoon if you miss one you'll be a sweaty mess by the time the next packed train arrives. MRT starting to get that way too - but with larger trains (more carriages) than BTS. For BTS, void Siam Station in late afternoon as you get shoppers and students (Chula and other schools) converging and long lines heading home.