New 'metro Mall' Underground In Bangers

[baht&sold]

So, having an appt across town today, i made use of the rot faai fa and rot fai tai din (sp: skytrain and underground) crossing over at Asoke. I noticed a small entranceway on the first level of the underground to something called "metro mall".

Couldn't resist and wandered in. At first glance, I thought maybe, just maybe, this is planned to be like at Bugi's on Singapore MRT etc, real underground shopping and eating 'villages' at various stns with a life all their own.

Sadly, there's NO seating anywhere (that is, IF you want to chow on a DQ hotdog or Auntie's pretzel etc) since the spokesguy at one brand name kiosk told me, the MRT guys are keen on selling ALL the space to vendors, leaving scant or no area to sit.

I'd hope (beyond hope;) this changes, real foodcourts can establish, WITH seating areas and some good on the go grub n grog. Not likely tho, since it appears the MRT is after concessions, and could give a wit about actual patrons...

Anyone visited yet? (more to come at other stops btw)

[DJ Pat]

I wish they would stop the loudspeakers blasting out telling everyone about it, it won't make me wanna go down there!!

[Amethyst]

Yeah went there many times... The should have planned something like Singapore Orchard Mrt which is a real underground shopping area and is connected to different areas and roads..

[baht&sold]

Yeah went there many times... The should have planned something like Singapore Orchard Mrt which is a real underground shopping area and is connected to different areas and roads..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Would be great to see T (IF it happens;).

DJ Phat, yo dog, the loudspeakers gotta go, agreed, so annoying

If anyone knows, I'm curious about the retail outlets rental rates down there... probably more than a shoe shine kiosk in the car park at Trump Tower

[trunknuk]

I agree with the poor planning... It's out of the way with a small entrance. I walked thru and felt like nothing much was happening. Hardly called a Mall.

I don't know why it's so hard for these people to take a trip to Singapore and just copy copy copy. I thought that was the 4tay here anyway?

[thailien8]

Hey it's not so bad. The loudspeakers were for the lovely winged angels who promoted the mall for a couple weeks. They're gone now. The mall has some much appreciated features for this subway rider. I can now buy a newspaper, surf the internet at warp speed and have a half price coffee at the comfy True internet shop (with seating) get a 10-minute haircut (I passed on this actually) and even take a leak in the only public hong nam I know of in the whole skytrain-subway system. As an English teacher with an interest in the ever-amusing misuses of my native language here, I even got a cheap thrill out of the mall's slogan: "Let's join us".

[lomatopo]

It looks like the MRT retail space was a bit of an afterthought? I sort of understand Thais might not be that comfortable underground, I could be making a gross and misjudged generalization. It looks like the retail "corridors" were added as an afterthought? While the one at Asoke does lead to an exit, some of the others (not yet opened) look like they will be dead-ends. A better design, if that's what you were looking for, would have been to design the retail space into the flow of passengers exiting and entering the stations. A lot of the retail space in the SMRT (Singapore) is housed in connections off of the various stops (Citylink comes to mind).

[Crossy]

Seoul has some interesting ideas for retail space on the metro.

Much of the system was built using the 'cut and cover' method, dig a deep trench, put a railway in the bottom, fill in the top.

The ever resourceful Koreans built shopping levels above the track, saving on filling and providing 'malls' running along the route (60 feet wide and 3 MILES long), there are several places where you can walk between stations shopping all the way.