BTS / MRT monthly pass - Does it exist ? / How much is it ?

[Baron Samedi]

Hi guys,

 

Is there a monthly pass available for the BTS and MRT?

If so, does that pass allow access to both transportation systems?

How much is it?

 

Thanks for your help ????????

[tomazbodner]

BTS I think never had one. There were just 15 or 30 trip passes. MRT used to have monthly pass but I think that's now gone for a few years already as well.

 

The systems are not connected so there's no card that works on both systems. There was Mangmoom (spider) card in the works some years back that was supposed to come one card for all transport... but from what I can see, that didn't get anywhere.

 

If you have a contactless credit or debit card like VISA Wave, you can use that to pay when entering and exiting both BTS and MRT, but otherwise you'd need separate cards. And Airport Link has separate one as well. And buses have separate also... This ain't Hong Kong ????

 

But for final and definitive answer - let's wait for Crossy's take. That's the only one you can trust on train topics in Bangkok...

Edited September 23, 2022 by tomazbodner

[blackcab]

@Crossy...?

[Crossy]

Currently BTS only sell the One Day tourist pass.

 

The system is perfectly capable of selling others but they are not enabled. You can however swap Rabbit Points for trips https://rewards.rabbit.co.th/redeem_detail/bts-free-3-trips-for-adult-rabbit-card?locale=en

 

I'm checking what the MRT sell, they've been messing about recently.

 

Of course it's all about the $$$.

 

EDIT MRT (Purple Line only) Passes. Note that the selling period has been extended with no currently defined end date. Still not sure about the Blue Line.

 

[CLW]

13 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

BTS I think never had one. There were just 15 or 30 trip passes. MRT used to have monthly pass but I think that's now gone for a few years already as well.

 

The systems are not connected so there's no card that works on both systems. There was Mangmoom (spider) card in the works some years back that was supposed to come one card for all transport... but from what I can see, that didn't get anywhere.

 

If you have a contactless credit or debit card like VISA Wave, you can use that to pay when entering and exiting both BTS and MRT, but otherwise you'd need separate cards. And Airport Link has separate one as well. And buses have separate also... This ain't Hong Kong ????

 

But for final and definitive answer - let's wait for Crossy's take. That's the only one you can trust on train topics in Bangkok...

To my knowledge only MRT has the option to use credit card for contactless payment at the gates

[blackcab]

@Crossy Are there any plans for the BTS to accept EMV payments?

[Crossy]

4 minutes ago, blackcab said:

@Crossy Are there any plans for the BTS to accept EMV payments?

 

Coming "soon" it's in the planning stage at present, the government are pushing hard (and calling it Mangmoom 4.0) but of course BTS don't want to pay for it.

 

Accepting EMV is a potential digital security nightmare because you have to link exit and entry to the same card and it's not permitted to store real card numbers.

 

[Baron Samedi]

Well thanks for your replies.

I'm not gonna lie. This is disappointing.

Bangkok municipality should make monthly and yearly passes mandatory for all public transportation companies (train, BTS, MRT, buses, etc...).

Thailand signed the Kyoto protocol in 1999 and the Paris agreement in 2016.

Might be about time to act on it and make public transportation attractive to people.

Just sayin' ????

[Celsius]

20 minutes ago, Baron Samedi said:

Well thanks for your replies.

I'm not gonna lie. This is disappointing.

Bangkok municipality should make monthly and yearly passes mandatory for all public transportation companies (train, BTS, MRT, buses, etc...).

Thailand signed the Kyoto protocol in 1999 and the Paris agreement in 2016.

Might be about time to act on it and make public transportation attractive to people.

Just sayin' ????

 

Did you seriously write all this with a straight face?

[Seppius]

I use a Rabbit card for the BTS, I just top that up in the station when it gets low, had the same card for a few years, does not work on the MRT of course but very handy

[Crossy]

1 hour ago, Baron Samedi said:

Well thanks for your replies.

I'm not gonna lie. This is disappointing.

Bangkok municipality should make monthly and yearly passes mandatory for all public transportation companies (train, BTS, MRT, buses, etc...).

Thailand signed the Kyoto protocol in 1999 and the Paris agreement in 2016.

Might be about time to act on it and make public transportation attractive to people.

Just sayin' ????

 

Good luck with that. TiT.

 

Trust me, we've been trying since before I came to Thailand in 2004!

• We came within an ace of Rabbit working on the MRT. "Commercial issues" (politics) stopped that and really screwed up my plans for the Purple Line as I had assumed it would go ahead.
• The original version of Mangmoom was government sponsored. Zero uptake from the operators (costs to implement).
• The MRTA are trying to push for EMV on all lines, the problem is that the BTS core system isn't under MRTA.
• There have been other attempts at some form of standardisation too.

Part of the issue is that the authorities (BMA, MRTA, OTP) really don't have any teeth (and really don't talk to one another either) unlike the LTA in Singapore.

 

I was nearly ejected from an early meeting of the Mangmoom design team for saying "we have a limited budget, why don't we buy or buy in to Rabbit which is an already working and accepted system". Meanwhile SPAD in K.L. bought the already operational Touch-n-Go system and are doing just fine.

 

[Baron Samedi]

By the way, how about the buses ?

Is the bus network good ?

How much is it ?

Passes available ?

Do you have a link to the official website ?

Thx !

@Crossy @Celcius @Seppius @tomazbodner

[Crossy]

28 minutes ago, Baron Samedi said:

By the way, how about the buses ?

Is the bus network good ?

How much is it ?

Passes available ?

Do you have a link to the official website ?

Thx !

@Crossy @Celcius @Seppius @tomazbodner

 

Ah.

 

The buses are a law unto themselves. Take cash!

 

Just this week I saw an article showing that they were going off down yet another (IMHO dead-end) route. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02H5zzXhxeaSiM1g3W3wRQGxZPPDtjMpVegvi7bgQwpto1DB1gBtxALKLzcJtiMz6fl&id=326789607435947

 

Someone will be lining their pockets; it won't be me!

 

As a (foreign) consultant I have two three jobs:-

• To be ignored.
• To be blamed when it goes pear shaped because I was ignored.
• To take the money for fixing it when it's gone wrong due to the above!!

TiT.

 

  

[Celsius]

The orange Aircon buses have amonthly pass, but what's the point? Rides on those are so cheap.

[NoshowJones]

2 hours ago, Baron Samedi said:

Well thanks for your replies.

I'm not gonna lie. This is disappointing.

Bangkok municipality should make monthly and yearly passes mandatory for all public transportation companies (train, BTS, MRT, buses, etc...).

Thailand signed the Kyoto protocol in 1999 and the Paris agreement in 2016.

Might be about time to act on it and make public transportation attractive to people.

Just sayin' ????

There will need to be some sort of financial advantages before the soldiers will take any interest. If all the transport in Bangkok, except of course taxis, got together with thick brown envelopes, that would probably do the trick.

[NoshowJones]

2 hours ago, Seppius said:

I use a Rabbit card for the BTS, I just top that up in the station when it gets low, had the same card for a few years, does not work on the MRT of course but very handy

Yes it was very handy, but when I renewed my Bangkok debit card they were not interested in transferring the money I had to my new card, it was only about 200Bt, but still.

[Baron Samedi]

54 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Just this week I saw an article showing that they were going off down yet another (IMHO dead-end) route. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02H5zzXhxeaSiM1g3W3wRQGxZPPDtjMpVegvi7bgQwpto1DB1gBtxALKLzcJtiMz6fl&id=326789607435947

Can't read that unfortunately. Shows up in Thai for me.

 

54 minutes ago, Crossy said:

As a (foreign) consultant I have two three jobs:-

• To be ignored.
• To be blamed when it goes pear shaped because I was ignored.
• To take the money for fixing it when it's gone wrong due to the above!!

Interesting job ????

 

51 minutes ago, Celsius said:

The orange Aircon buses have amonthly pass, but what's the point? Rides on those are so cheap.

Ok so all the buses in the network aren't part of the same company, right? How does it go? Each color is a different company with different prices?  Is there a map available somewhere or even better an app to find my way in this maze?

 

Guys, thank you so much. I know I've been asking many questions and I appreciate you taking the time to reply ????

[bangon04]

9 hours ago, Seppius said:

I use a Rabbit card for the BTS, I just top that up in the station when it gets low, had the same card for a few years, does not work on the MRT of course but very handy

yes - it would be far too difficult for them to accept the Rabbit Card on the MRT and the buses....... 

[Crossy]

10 hours ago, Baron Samedi said:

Can't read that unfortunately. Shows up in Thai for me.

 

Google Translate is your friend (not that the article makes masses of sense even in Thai).

[Lorry]

On 9/24/2022 at 5:44 PM, Celsius said:

The orange Aircon buses have amonthly pass, but what's the point? Rides on those are so cheap.

It is good for workers on low wages who take the same bus twice a day, 6 days a week.

[eisfeld]

On 9/24/2022 at 9:40 AM, Crossy said:

Accepting EMV is a potential digital security nightmare because you have to link exit and entry to the same card and it's not permitted to store real card numbers.

Hm I thought storing the card number is allowed in "unreadable" form? On entry store a salted hash of the card number + expiration date with the entry station, then on exit you look up what the entry station for this hash was and so know how much to charge. Bonus points for rotating the salt daily and purging the data on exit or 24h.

 

Still need to keep that data secure but should be allowed according to PCI-DSS.

[ricklev]

11 hours ago, eisfeld said:

Hm I thought storing the card number is allowed in "unreadable" form? On entry store a salted hash of the card number + expiration date with the entry station, then on exit you look up what the entry station for this hash was and so know how much to charge. Bonus points for rotating the salt daily and purging the data on exit or 24h.

 

Still need to keep that data secure but should be allowed according to PCI-DSS.

You know too much!  ????

[Crossy]

Updated info on Blue / Purple passes.

 

[ricklev]

The Blue line also has an "elder' card which makes all trips half price.  It is available to foreigners 60 and over with no fuss.  I just showed my Thai driver's license.  BTS does not offer a discount to foreigners.  I'm not sure about the Purple line or if the monthly passes are half price for "elders".