Train To Suv

[jauntyjohn]

Are there any websites showing an artists impression of the railway line/train service to the new airport?

[Crossy]

I'd be interested too, there's a tiny picture on the Siemens website :-

http://www.transportation.siemens.com/ts/e...ople_mover_.htm

[ThaiGoon]

Here's its official website. But it's in Thai though. Perhaps you can use the google webpage translation to translate it. It's got some pictures there too.

http://www.airportraillink.com/

[Xeque]

The BTS Skytrain extension is being built now. It will continue on from the current terminal (On Nut) towards Bang Na and then on eastwards to Suvarnabhumi. But it will be a year or two before it is ready to begin services. There are at least 4 stations to be built between On Nut and Bang Na although it would seem to be non-stop to the airport after that but I may be wrong.

In the meantime, This is a photograph of Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport taken on July 26, 2006 a couple of weeks before the airport officially opened.

Now, I’m not a civil engineer but it seems to me that even if the level of the airport itself had been raised by 10 – 15 feet (a major landfill operation in anyone’s terms) the lowest part of the of the runway and taxiway foundations (assuming that the hardcore, impacted foundation material and runway sub-structure and top surface was at least 10 feet thick) would have been very close to the water table as you can see. Subsidence would seem inevitable.

There has been much comment, locally and elsewhere, that the airport was rushed into service and opened too early. That relates to the terminal buildings and has nothing to do with the runways and taxiways that were already completed. No amount of work over an extended period of time until the airport was deemed to be ‘ready’ would change that.

I accept that there are airports around the world that have been built either on or very close to water. London City or the new Hong Kong (even the old Hong Kong) are examples. But look at that photo. Suvarnabhumi has just been laid down on top of an exiting swamp! There is no solid substructure (like Hong Kong which began as 2 islands) or London City which was built above existing piers and jetties that had been there for nearly a century.

The latest in the saga here is that the Director has resigned and a couple of lesser individuals have been sacked. Since it was the Director himself who categorically stated that the airport would never close, does that clear the way for closure for real? Interesting.

Keeping Suvarnabhumi open whilst there are severe doubts as to it’s safety will do Thailand absolutely no good at all particularly with the tourist industry reeling from a combination of negative events such as the coup, bombs in Bangkok, the insurgency in the south etc etc.

Re-opening Don Muang for international flights and adding U-Taphao to ease the strain makes very good sense. This will allow the Thais to shut Suvarnabhumi down and then set about sorting out Suvarnabhumi once and for all thus creating the international gateway it should have been from the outset.

[lomatopo]

The BTS Skytrain extension is being built now. It will continue on from the current terminal (On Nut) towards Bang Na and then on eastwards to Suvarnabhumi. But it will be a year or two before it is ready to begin services. There are at least 4 stations to be built between On Nut and Bang Na although it would seem to be non-stop to the airport after that but I may be wrong.

Unfortunately you are wrong. You are confusing two separate on-going projects.

There is a BTS extension from On Nut to Sukhumvit Soi 107 (orignially was supposed to go to soi 119).

An elevated rail-link between Suvarnabhumi airport and Makasan, continuing on to the Phaya Thai BTS station, is currently being constructed.

I've seen some artists renderings on the Makasan station but not of the entire line.

You could slog though this thread for possible renderings? Or this other thread?

Edited February 4, 2007 by lomatopo