Bts

[petedk]

I use the BTS skytrain 3 or 4 times weekly and think it's a good service and has remarkable safety standards.

On Thursday evening however, I experienced something different.

I took the skytrain from Siam Square to Thong Lor at 21.00 hrs and I noticed that at every station the driver was incredibly fast to blow the whistle to close the doors. I think at every station while passengers were exiting he blew the first whistle and often before everyone had got on he blew the second whistle and closed the doors. Some people tried to jump in quicky but the guards were very fast to stop them. It's not as if it was rush hour with hundreds of people getting on and off.

Has anyone else experienced this or was it a one off job?

I know buses (and boats on Klong San Saeb) often don't don't stop completely but is the BTS beginning to follow the same ways?

How long before we see an accident here?

[DamianMavis]

I dont normally defend Thai anything but in this particular case... I think it was a rare occurence. I take the BTS 2 times a day and it rarely is bad like that. Perhaps he was a bit behind schedule.

Damian

[John K]

The sky trains are largely automated with limited control the driver has (so I have been told). However my observations tell me this to be true. Some of the safety features include no 2 trains may be in the same zone, that is why a train may periodically stop between stations during rush hour when they have many trains running. If the train operator ahead has delayed the doors closing that is usually why. Also the time at a station my be reduced if a train is running late and that may be what you encountered. That is computer controlled and that in my mind is a good thing to counter accumulated Thai time.

If you take the time to look you will find a printed train schedule at each station as to when a train is due to arrive and I find them to be very accurate.

[petedk]

Yes, I agree the safety procedures are excellent and I am not criticizing the BTS. I just wondered if that type of incident has happened before.

Yes normally the doors are open for a longer time. Maybe he was late that on that particular journey.

I have never seen the printed schedules but then again I have never looked as the trains always come every 3 minutes or so in the rush hour and 5 minutes at other times.

[John K]

Short answer yes.

[surface]

I also thought it was odd the one time I saw this, especially being from NYC as they'll pretty much wait until the doors are clear. I along, along with the rest of the passengers, patiently waited to the side while everyone got off, then just as the last of them were exiting, the bell rang and I was lucky to jump on. I'd say 90% of folks didn't get on and the train was less than half full. After watching that, I was thinking about the same happening in NYC. There would have been a riot, and one severly injured conductor.