"Neo-Pattaya": Mayor announces 80 billion baht investment to make city more liveable

[Kerryd]

Coming to a High Speed Train/Monorail near you soon (by 2022/2027/2122 or "eventually")


In theory, it all sounds good. The gov't announces a bunch of proposals, then sits back and gauges the public support for them. Some proposals will then go on to the next stage (planning/bidding) and others will go back into the "let's try this again in 6 months" basket.

Most of these things will happen eventually. Pattaya isn't going to shrivel up and die. Very few cities shrink or collapse these days. Most continue expanding at a pace far greater than the city's ability to support it.

Yes, we know, Pattaya isn't Bangkok and never will be. But it is already to the point that things need to be done. Like trying to alleviate traffic issues by building a mass transit system. Why not ? Other cities (that aren't Bangkok either) have had such systems in place for decades.
Why wait until the situation is so bad that it takes 2 hours to get from Sukhumvit to Beach Road anytime between 5am-3am ?

All that does is guarantee even more disruptions, even higher construction costs and the probability that by the time the work is done, it will be "too little, too late" (in other words, it won't be able to cope with the number of people trying to use it, kind of like the Japanese subways where they have staff standing by the doors to shove people inside so the doors can close because the cars are so overcrowded).

Airports are a prime example of "forward thinking". You don't spend 5+ years planning an airport and designing it to handle the number of aircraft/passengers you are currently getting, you plan it to handle the numbers you expect to be receiving for 10-20 years after it's completed.

Take Suvarnabhumi for example. It wasn't built to handle the amount of traffic that Don Mueang was getting at the time. It was built based on what they thought the traffic would be like 20 years after it was completed, with planned expansions (Phase 2 and Phase 3) scheduled to happen 5/10 years after the airport opened. Those expansions were already planned before the first airplane ever landed at that airport.

(We are talking about the facilities, not the Immigration queues which is mainly a staffing issue, not a design problem.)

And, as a prime example again, look at what happened with Swampy. Barely 2 years into operation and they were already exceeding the capacity they thought they wouldn't be at for another couple of years. As a result the Phase 2 expansion had to started 3 years earlier than planned and Phase 3 had to be moved up as well (and, pre-covid, it still wasn't going to be enough). That is why they had to start using Don Mueang more and improving U-Tapao, to take the strain off of Swampy.

If Pattaya waits until they are experiencing mass traffic jams all day, everyday, before they start trying to fix the problem (by building a mass transit system) they could be in the same boat. 
Better to build it now, at today's costs, then to do it 10+ years from now when it will be even more expensive, especially as the construction companies will know how urgently the project is (and thus how much more they can add to their bids, knowing the gov't will have little choice but to pay).

One also has to take the long view and consider that, they aren't thinking about these things based on the current state of tourism, or on the opinions of a small number of whiny expats who continually harp about how the city is dead.

They are looking at what things will hopefully be like in a couple years, when the covid crisis is (hopefully) under control and the tourism numbers start to skyrocket again.
The highspeed train is meant to get tourists from the airport to Pattaya (and back). As they are also building (or planning to) a high speed train like to China, you can expect (eventually) that there will be a lot of tourists who will end up in Pattaya as a result of that train.

As well, they are (proposing/planning) some kind of Cruise Ship terminal. If that goes ahead you can believe that the cruise ship lines will have zero problem with bringing thousands of more people to Pattaya (regardless of what you think about the city or it's future).

It is expected that the improvements to U-Tapao airport and exansion of the EEC (Eastern Economic Corridor) will also generate more traffic in the area (hence the improvements to the highways heading to/from Rayong, like the 331/332, 36 and the new Highway 7 extension).

And for those of you doom and gloomers who keep ranting about how "Pattaya is dead" and "Tourism will never recover" (wonk wonk wonk) - here's a clue for you.

The year after the Tsunami in December 2004, Thailand's overall tourism numbers went down, a lot. 
By the end of 2006 however, they were back up and higher than they'd ever been before. And they kept climbing every year since. Even with the 2 coups and the political turmoil, the tourism numbers kept climbing.
They were set to break the records again until the covid crisis hit.

You can guarantee that once things get back to "normal", the number of arrivals will also start going up again and it won't take long until they are surpassing the old records (again). 
It might take 3, 4, 5 years, but people are not going to stop coming to Thailand just because some old grumps think tourism is dead here.

How many frikken times do we hear "oh that's going to be the straw that breaks the back of tourism in Thailand" every frikken time the gov't announces a one day ban on alcohol sales ? And how many times has the "back" of the tourism industry been "broken" as a result ?
Never.

The problem (with some people here on this forum) is they seem to be under the impression that all the major cities in the world have always been like they are now. They don't seem to be able to comprehend that places like London, New York, Bangkok or LA weren't always massive "modern" cities like they are now and they too eventually had to develop things like mass transit systems.
They seem to be under the impression that no city ever grows beyond what it was like when they first saw it, because it didn't happen while they were there to see it.

(Kind of like the numpties that think the earth is only 6,000 years old - and flat. Even when you prove it to them they still refuse to believe it.)

Simple fact. Pattaya isn't going to "die" and will in fact continue to grow. Whether you like it or not. 

Some of you may even live long enough to see it, as you ride the monorail to get to your favourite (air conditioned) shopping mall so you can spend the day griping about all the "foreign" tourists crowding the place and pine for the "good old days" when you had the place to yourself because of the covid crisis.

 

[tomauasia]

So these public servants now control country budgets. You can't make this stuff up. What a circus 

[elgenon]

Not a word about the the stench plant and the effluent in the water. The Ruskies and Chinese enjoy it?

[sungod]

21 hours ago, darksidedog said:

The only way to make Pattaya into the mayors envisioned Utopia is to raze the place to ground level and start from scratch. 

You have to say his time frame of 2022 does seem somewhat optimistic. Simple roadworks such as Soi Siam Country club show how incompetence is all around us. If they can't finish that in Christ knows how long now, sorting out Pattaya in half the time should be fun to watch.

if they are as incompetent as you say, why would the rebuild be any better? ????

[Kerryd]

12 minutes ago, elgenon said:

Not a word about the the stench plant and the effluent in the water. The Ruskies and Chinese enjoy it?

Probably included under points 1, 2 and 6.

[Henryford]

What is this guy smoking? The only investment will be in new Mercedes.

[Dazauz]

Lol the funny part was he thinks there's not so many infections in Russia, I think he only reads the Pattaya news. ????????????????????????

[Bundooman]

On 10/29/2020 at 2:21 PM, GlassWayOverHalfFull said:

15,000 posts and this is what you come up with? 

But with a mere 60 posts, you feel experienced enough to criticise others who use this forum to express their views?

Is that all YOU can come up with?

Yet you quote, "7 years writing 2 negative posts a day". Really?

You counted them? ALL of them?

How many of your meagre 60 posts were critical of Thailand?

Or are you just trolling?

[Huckenfell]

On 10/29/2020 at 3:13 PM, Phuketshrew said:

Some nice little earners among that lot .....

Do they have a decent sewerage disposal plant there yet or does the turds still float  along the beachfront.

[NE1]

13 minutes ago, Huckenfell said:

Do they have a decent sewerage disposal plant there yet or does the turds still float  along the beachfront.

No , some of them still sit in their office pretending they are important....????????

[jacko45k]

On 10/29/2020 at 3:17 PM, klauskunkel said:

Entice them with what exactly? The Dolphin Roundabout? The one g-string that's left on Soi 6?

It isn't a roundabout no more, can't go all the way round for a long time... also means you can't get onto it from 2nd Rd due to the constant stream of fast moving traffic coming down Nua. 

[actonion]

Sweet words to keep the punters hoping, thats all, ..I will believe it when i see it

[Leaver]

5 hours ago, actonion said:

Sweet words to keep the punters hoping, thats all, ..I will believe it when i see it

I think it's "sweet words" to lure back the lost western tourist market (pre Covid) but it's too late.  Always difficult to get a customer back, once you have lost them.

 

He says he'll spend billions on infrastructure projects, yet can't even get proper metered taxis here.  

 

[Oldie]

On 10/30/2020 at 9:45 AM, Kerryd said:

Simple fact. Pattaya isn't going to "die" and will in fact continue to grow. Whether you like it or not. 

Some of you may even live long enough to see it, as you ride the monorail to get to your favourite (air conditioned) shopping mall so you can spend the day griping about all the "foreign" tourists crowding the place and pine for the "good old days" when you had the place to yourself because of the covid crisis.
 

Pattaya is nothing special. Perhaps for booze and sex tourists and cheap mass tourism. But that is it then. As you correctly said it is not Bangkok. Bangkok can survive without such tourists. Pattaya not. Pattaya could be everywhere. There are no real tourist attractions that make it special. 

[Leaver]

8 minutes ago, Oldie said:

Pattaya is nothing special. Perhaps for booze and sex tourists and cheap mass tourism. But that is it then. As you correctly said it is not Bangkok. Bangkok can survive without such tourists. Pattaya not. Pattaya could be everywhere. There are no real tourist attractions that make it special. 

I agree.  

 

Pattaya should have stuck to what made it famous, and many Thai's wealthy, "booze and sex tourists."