The 35 billion baht white elephant – Phuket’s light rail

[rooster59]

The 35 billion baht white elephant – Phuket’s light rail

By Tim Newton

 

“About the only thing feasible in this rendering is the blue sky.”

 

Spending 35 billion baht on infrastructure that few will use, is planned on the least useful route and will cause mayhem for a 3-5 year build time is a waste of money.

 

The Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) is currently chatting to the private sector and local administrative bodies to support Phuket’s planned light-rail/tram project.

 

Firstly, where will it travel?

 

Full story: https://thethaiger.com/news/phuket/the-35-billion-baht-white-elephant-phukets-light-rail

 

 

-- © Copyright The Thaiger 2019-01-13

 

 

[SoilSpoil]

The 6 P's come to mind.

[sammieuk1]

Its crashed before its got off the drawing board and is now the first transport scheme to save lives????

[LivinginKata]

It's amazing that this fraud/dream has been exposed.

[mok199]

Nice surreal picture,but i don't see any packs of ferral dogs, food carts ,tour buses, motorcycle and meter taxis blocking footpaths,little grade school drop outs on loud scooters and the general chaos that makes Thailand so ''special''

[helloagain]

Total crap idea

[grego49]

16 minutes ago, helloagain said:

Total crap idea

Agreed,but somewhere along the tracks there would be a lot of rorting as usual.

[Old Croc]

This is just a personal opinion piece by Tim Newton, he's not announcing anything new other than the current stage of progress.

The suitability, cost and routing of the project have all been discussed ad- infinitum on this forum before.

He has opined the worst possible scenarios to match his narrative, and if any wish to take his opinions as gospel he has a series of top 10 lists you could follow.

I just wish the media here would concentrate on real news, including that which happens on a weekend, and be less of a conduit for advertising and opinion pieces. 

[car720]

1 hour ago, mok199 said:

Nice surreal picture,but i don't see any packs of ferral dogs, food carts ,tour buses, motorcycle and meter taxis blocking footpaths,little grade school drop outs on loud scooters and the general chaos that makes Thailand so ''special''

neither do most of the Thais.  

[Emster23]

White elephants have lots of ivory to poach, which is probably reason behind most "improvements"

[Burma Bill]

The cost of building a tunnel under Patong Hill alone would be astronomical!

[Srikcir]

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

where will it travel?

"The tram stops avoid most of the tourist hot spots along the west coast of the island and concentrates on locals living along the main Thepkasattri trunk from Thalang to Phuket Town and then Chao Fah East to Chalong.

Patong? Kata? Karon? Surin? Mai Khao? Kamala? Nowhere near them."

 

Well, that may be due to those properties owned by existing owners might benefit by in higher land values with a rational tram route whereas recent speculators who might promote the irrational planned route more recently acquired land rights along the planned route. And of course any hypothetical payments for "government services" might be in the offering for such promotion.

[Oziex1]

3 hours ago, grego49 said:

Agreed,but somewhere along the tracks there would be a lot of rorting as usual.

The gravy train. 

[Oxx]

I was reminded of this Guardian article from a few days ago:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jan/08/how-an-emerging-african-megacity-cut-commutes-by-two-hours-a-day-dar-es-salaam

 

It strongly suggests that a good bus system is the cheap, effective way to go.  Not some fancy vanity project.

[ChipButty]

I feel like i've lived on a building site for 20 years finish all the others first, a good bus system would work better

[natway09]

A combined rail/road tunnel should have been finished 20 years ago

[Ulic]

Those who will feed at the trough support it fully, those who may be able to use it because of its planned route support if only partially because it may not be built as planned. Who knows, it may be their land/house expropriated, and the rest of the public does not support the construction at all.

[monkeycu]

7 hours ago, mok199 said:

Nice surreal picture,but i don't see any packs of ferral dogs, food carts ,tour buses, motorcycle and meter taxis blocking footpaths,little grade school drop outs on loud scooters and the general chaos that makes Thailand so ''special''

Don't forget the Thai drivers using the track to avoid the traffic

[madmitch]

4 hours ago, Srikcir said:

"The tram stops avoid most of the tourist hot spots along the west coast of the island and concentrates on locals living along the main Thepkasattri trunk from Thalang to Phuket Town and then Chao Fah East to Chalong.

Patong? Kata? Karon? Surin? Mai Khao? Kamala? Nowhere near them."

 

Well, that may be due to those properties owned by existing owners might benefit by in higher land values with a rational tram route whereas recent speculators who might promote the irrational planned route more recently acquired land rights along the planned route. And of course any hypothetical payments for "government services" might be in the offering for such promotion.

I think it's more likely to do with the hills!

[Oziex1]

3 minutes ago, madmitch said:

I think it's more likely to do with the hills!

Build tunnels, they love their road underpasses 

[madmitch]

1 minute ago, Oziex1 said:

Build tunnels, they love their road underpasses 

Aaaaarrrrrggghhhh!!!

[the guest]

Phuket in 10 years will become totally gridlocked. Do you think the tourists will still come?

[inThailand]

11 hours ago, the guest said:

Phuket in 10 years will become totally gridlocked. Do you think the tourists will still come?

We can only hope they don't. 

Edited January 14, 2019 by inThailand

[Old Croc]

19 hours ago, Srikcir said:

"The tram stops avoid most of the tourist hot spots along the west coast of the island and concentrates on locals living along the main Thepkasattri trunk from Thalang to Phuket Town and then Chao Fah East to Chalong.

Patong? Kata? Karon? Surin? Mai Khao? Kamala? Nowhere near them."

 

Well, that may be due to those properties owned by existing owners might benefit by in higher land values with a rational tram route whereas recent speculators who might promote the irrational planned route more recently acquired land rights along the planned route. And of course any hypothetical payments for "government services" might be in the offering for such promotion.

Should all infrastructure on Phuket only be built for the tourist trade, and not for locals to commute? Is that how it works in other Provinces?

 

Personally I think there are better alternatives than this, but I also understand that not everything can be about servicing the tourist towns on the hilly west side of the island.  The attitude exhibited by many that it must be all encompassing or not at all, mystifies me.

I consider it to be a START in the war to overcome Phuket's sad and corrupt lack of public transport . I can envision new bus services linking the rail stations to the tourist centers and consider that would be a vast improvement on the current situation.

To get any of Phuket's vast tax money back from Bangkok for local projects, instead of being spent on fast trains to China, is not something to be rejected just because it doesn't suit everybody.

[hansgruber]

Theppasatri Rd will be interesting. Speeding cars and trucks trying to overtake the trams. 

It will be mayhem along that stretch. 

 

[tifino]

Used to luv the overhead style train of Sentosa Island S'Pore, and the KL one to the North East...

 

 

Just scale it up a 1000 times over for a bigger island!

 

 

be cheaper than going to Disneyland

Edited January 14, 2019 by tifino

[Old Croc]

9 minutes ago, tifino said:

Used to luv the overhead style train of Sentosa Island S'Pore, and the KL one to the North East...

 

 

Just scale it up a 1000 times over for a bigger island!

 

 

be cheaper than going to Disneyland

The bosses of Phuket wouldn't allow a monorail system here. They strongly object to anything built overhead such as overpasses, u-turns or anything resembling the BTS.

[arithai12]

15 hours ago, Old Croc said:

Should all infrastructure on Phuket only be built for the tourist trade, and not for locals to commute? Is that how it works in other Provinces?

 

Personally I think there are better alternatives than this, but I also understand that not everything can be about servicing the tourist towns on the hilly west side of the island.  The attitude exhibited by many that it must be all encompassing or not at all, mystifies me.

I consider it to be a START in the war to overcome Phuket's sad and corrupt lack of public transport . I can envision new bus services linking the rail stations to the tourist centers and consider that would be a vast improvement on the current situation.

To get any of Phuket's vast tax money back from Bangkok for local projects, instead of being spent on fast trains to China, is not something to be rejected just because it doesn't suit everybody.

Things are slowly changing. The west coast has a decent bus line (smart bus) which luckily seems to be picking up, definitely popular with tourists who don't want to deal with the taxi mafia, and a few thais as well. It's slow of course, not exactly cheap for daily commutes, and a bit corrupt as sometimes I see drivers pocket the cash from the tourists instead of issuing the required rabbit card. But it's a good start and it seems to be increasing its frequency.

 

About trams along the central backbone I don't know, seems more a good opportunity for a few to make good money with contracts and under-the-table envelopes than a sensible project with a realistic, cost-benefit efficient plan. Just the pain of construction would be horrific for a few years. But like you I welcome that at least something is being discussed.