Sky Train From The Airport

[tw25rw]

This train might not be of much use to us with suitcases, but it should benefit those travelling lightly - domestic travellers etc, so there should be less competition for taxis.

[tw25rw]

But from the sound of all this - this rail line sounds as if it has nothing whatsoever to do with BTS or the group that financed & built it in the first place.

It's an elevated railway, but isn't part of the BTS network and doesn't share a track with it AFAIK.

[Heng]

Is there a map online with the proposed stops + park and rides?

[samran]

I usually stay near the Thong Lo Skytrain station when I'm in BKK, and I would love to have the abiilty to step onto the train at Swampy and off at Thong Lo.

Changi in Singapore is IMHO the model of what this kind of RT connection to the airport should be. What's the chance that the BKK connection will turn out to be as nice and as easy to use as the Singapore connection...?

Biggest problem I see is getting from Makkasan to lower Sukhumvit.. It's a short taxi ride that some drivers won't want to bother with, and getting to hotels by skytrain with luggage will be a royal pain in the arse.

For the cost of 2 lady drinks, I'd rather just get a taxi to the door.

As a shuttle, the airport train doesn't make any sense except for someone who lives under an airport train station or for a single traveler with no luggage who would rather spend more time jumping onto different forms of mass transit than going direct just to save a few (very few) satangs.

I live across from Thong Lo (soi 38) and it usually takes between 20 - 25 minutes and less than 200 baht to get to or back from the airport. Using the airport train, I would have to use other forms of transportation--taxi, moto, skytrain in combination--have to deal with inner city traffic and switching modes of transport just to get to the station. It would be a royal pain to do all by public transport with luggage. I don't know the proposed cost of the train but I doubt the difference is so large that I would prefer it to door-to-door transport, and if you are traveling with friends/family I am sure it would be more expensive.

Then there is the cost of operation. According to an article in the Nation, the designers of the project anticipate that to be profitable, 25% of passengers arriving at the new airport must use the system. Even in Singapore where the airport train is considered a huge success, it is less that 12%.

I see the motivation for airport train as the same for what has caused so much trouble with the airport to begin with: it is an unnecessary publics works project designed to provide the maximum possibility to skim money.

It may/may not make sense as an airport express. Who knows?

What it will do eventually though (like most rail lines) is create its own demand from the general public transport using public. Just watch as property prices along the line skyrocket once people work out they can get dropped off in the centre of town in 20mins. It will take a while to catch on, but once it does, watch out I reckon...

[Crossy]

What it will do eventually though (like most rail lines) is create its own demand from the general public transport using public. Just watch as property prices along the line skyrocket once people work out they can get dropped off in the centre of town in 20mins. It will take a while to catch on, but once it does, watch out I reckon...

I'm tempted to agree, particularly as there will be a 'City' service with more metro-like fares, if they sort out a single ticket deal with BTS and MRT then we have the makings of a decent urban rail system.

There is a proposal for an extension round to Don Mueang (not Rangsit as I thought) with a second City Air Terminal at Bang Sue. Express trains will run all the way between the two airports stopping only at Makkasan and Bang Sue, should have a journey time of around 35-40 minutes (the two CAT stations have long dwell times because of baggage loading).

We shall see if they ever get it built, TiT after all

[billp]

Airport Link delayed

INFRASTRUCTURE :The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) has agreed to allow the consortium led by Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction Plc (STECON) to extend by 370 days the deadline for the Airport Rail Link project to May 8 next year.

(Bangkok Post More here.)

[scrunchielaura]

O Ok so you never saw those Hopewell stanctions running along Makkasan Road/Kampang Phet7 Road? Remember where NASA used to be?

The airport line is not using any Hopewell structures, one or two were removed (much to the annoyance of the Hopewell company who still owned them).

It is not just one or two Hopewell structures that were removed along that route, but all of them. If you check the current Google Earth image, there are none of the structures left. A year or two ago, they were still present in the older Google Earth data.

[manjara]

I read in some of the previous comments some doom and gloom. Seems like there are reasonable solutions to all of the reservations:

- No provision for overtaking. If the express catches the other train, the one in front can convert into the express at the next station (everyone going to an intermediate station changes train - not many!)

- No use for people with a lot of baggage. The terminal - with checkin - will be at Makkasan, this works pretty well at Victoria for Gatwick (for those that understand it!). I'll certainly use it at peak times and when taxi fares go up to 'normal' levels

What I'd like to see is that the railway is extended out to Pattaya and Rayong, and perhaps from Makkasan to Hua Hin on the other side. Eventually it will happen, but could be another 100 years...