Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link Adjusts Strategy To Promote Check-In Services At Makkasan

[Imkah]

Tried the airport link once; no wait for the train got to Makkasan in 20-some minutes I think, and thought GREAT. When my wife called about an hour later asking where the H*** I was? "Stuck in traffic - I took the train". Proved her right again. I AM a fool. Off to the airport now, in a taxi on the highway.

[montrii]

HEY!!! SRT marketing guys... Are you listening??? Want to know why no one's using Makkasan check-in compared to the busy City Line???

--the BTS/MRT, taxi and pedestrian access to Makkasan (all three!!!) suck, whereas it's generally better at Phyathai. In particular, the vehicle access out of Makkasan for anyone heading toward the main Sukhumvit area is a mess. And even if you end up installing a pedestrian walkway from Makkasan to the Petchburi MRT Station, it's still going to be a hefty walk for anyone with a lot of luggage. You should have found a way to co-locate the Makkasan ARL Station with the Petchburi MRT Station, but too late now.

--what's the point of a check-in service at Makkasan that only includes THAI Air, and they're only there because someone's telling them they have to be. Besides, who wants to fly THAI Air anyway.

--people don't want to pay extra fare for what was the Express Line from Makkasan, when it provides no particular value that makes it more attractive vs. a passenger heading straight to Phyathai for the much less expensive City Line.

--In general, neither the Phyathai nor Makkasan stations are well-suited for international passengers carrying either a lot of and/or heavy luggage, because of the various fare gates, security checks, stairs and extended walking distances. People in that situation are going to take a taxi to the door at the airport regardless.

There certainly are other reasons as well... But these are among some of the highlights... And no marketing plan you're going to devise is going to resolve those kinds of glaring flaws.

This post pretty much says it all. I was wondering why no one before had mentioned the drawback of having only Thai Air check-ins. That alone probably accounts for a lot. Taxi rides are door-to-door, from most places faster, and for every passenger in the car, increasingly cheaper. And if you live on the Swampy side of town, even close to BTS, you have to go back in the wrong direction and then change trains before even getting to Makkasan.

[Gonsalviz]

Unless your hotel is near the station, I don't see the point.

I go out the hotel, never use a hotel limo. Just get in a taxi say you need to go to the airport and NO MORE THINKING.. Not like taxis are expensive. I can go from the airport to Bang Pa In for 500 Baht less toll fees or vice versa. Even hotel limos are note expensive. The transport seems more suited for backpackers. I didn't use the one in K.L. either for the same reason and that airport is FAR more out of town.

People we are not talking New York or London or Paris, etc.

[Disinto]

This is provided the traffic is not horrendous. My office is on Asoke and I can't pretty much take any taxi from there on evenings, let alone Friday evening.

[isaanbrit]

STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, why would I ever want to check my bags in at Makkhasan when I can just take the to Suvarnabhumi with me? Carrying my bags from my house to Makkhasan is at best the same as (and at worst much more hassle than) taking them straight to the airport. This is an idiotic plan and now that it's been proven to fail, they're just gonna flog a dead horse and try to persuade passengers to use it despite their not wanting to.

MARKET RESEARCH - do you think they did any? This smells distinctly like so many projects that are dreamed up by idiots with money and implemented with no consideration of the people's requirements.

However, I took the airport link to the airport the other day, and was pleasantly surprised! It was around 5pm so I was worried about the traffic if I'd taken a cab and I think I made the right move. Home to check-in in under an hour. Very cheap and no headaches from traffic. I was thinking to myself along the way though, how crazy it would be to get out of my seat at Makkhasan, go down and drop my bags off only to come all the way back up again.

Edited June 29, 2011 by isaanbrit

[samran]

It isn't one thing, it is a whole host of things.

- Accessibility to the station (via public transport) carrying bags is just not there

- The marginal cost of taxi's is low. If you are going to taxi to Makkasan through traffic, you'd probably find that a taxi direct to the airport is actually going to be cheaper (not to mention faster)

- Bag security.

Having said all that, I predict a few things will happen.

1) The city line will take over as the raison d'etre of the route to the airport(in the minds of the SRT management). Passengers have already figured out it is a great commuter line. Suburbs will continue to grow around it, increasing demand for the line over time.

2) this demand will (eventually) force the powers that be to construct proper connections to the underground

3) when that happens, I think hotels and other retail will then move into the area in a big way, as essentially the location will then be at the intersection of a proper interlinked transport hub (tollway, trains).

All this is going to take another 10 years though.

[vincentc]

The Cityline is a nuisance, for it interfering with the availability of Airport link trains.

WIth the former sold at nearly 4 times the price and only going to 1 station, I can Imagine the Cityline being pretty empty. I have never taken it, as I would have to take the airport link itself to get to Makkasan easiest. So why bother changing trains?

With the two lines running on the same single track, with huge price differences and both lines interfering with each other's schedules, one is bound to die.

Punctuality is another issue; my missus who is working at the airport is now using minivans again on the way to work because of better punctuality! Airportlink has caused her to be late for work too often. On the way home (when arrival time is less of an issue ) she'll use Airportlink

[samran]

The Cityline is a nuisance, for it interfering with the availability of Airport link trains.

WIth the former sold at nearly 4 times the price and only going to 1 station, I can Imagine the Cityline being pretty empty. I have never taken it, as I would have to take the airport link itself to get to Makkasan easiest. So why bother changing trains?

With the two lines running on the same single track, with huge price differences and both lines interfering with each other's schedules, one is bound to die.

Punctuality is another issue; my missus who is working at the airport is now using minivans again on the way to work because of better punctuality! Airportlink has caused her to be late for work too often. On the way home (when arrival time is less of an issue ) she'll use Airportlink

I think you'll find that the city line is quite packed most times. While designed as an express airport link, the line has quickly morphed into another (much needed) suburban rail line for the residents of BKK.

[whybother]

The Cityline Airport Express is a nuisance, for it interfering with the availability of Airport link Cityline trains.

WIth the former sold at nearly 4 times the price and only going to 1 station, I can Imagine the Cityline Airport Express being pretty empty. I have never taken it, as I would have to take the airport link Cityline itself to get to Makkasan easiest. So why bother changing trains?

With the two lines running on the same single track, with huge price differences and both lines interfering with each other's schedules, one is bound to die.

Punctuality is another issue; my missus who is working at the airport is now using minivans again on the way to work because of better punctuality! Airportlink Cityline has caused her to be late for work too often. On the way home (when arrival time is less of an issue ) she'll use Airportlink Cityline.

Edited above post for clarification.

[millwall_fan]

Hong Kong and KL have great airport rail links, but it takes 45 mins to get into Honkers and almost an hour to get into KL. This train takes 20 minutes from aiport to town! That's pretty good. If they could provide an underground link between Makkasan with Petchaburi - with travelators per chance? - I'm sure the whole system would work much better. People still wont check their bags in there though- Suvanarbhumi has an image problem and people just don't trust them!

[tingtongfarang]

Hong Kong and KL have great airport rail links, but it takes 45 mins to get into Honkers and almost an hour to get into KL. This train takes 20 minutes from aiport to town! That's pretty good. If they could provide an underground link between Makkasan with Petchaburi - with travelators per chance? - I'm sure the whole system would work much better. People still wont check their bags in there though- Suvanarbhumi has an image problem and people just don't trust them!

I travel to honkers every 2-3 months since years but still never used the airport link there too or from HK airport, GF always insisted the express bus is much easier/cheaper...thinking about it i never had to wait for a bus more than 2-3 minutes it also has ample space for travelers to put luggage and never in my time has it hit traffic jams apart from a little at the toll booth for the tunnel,

Bit ot but does anyone know the reason bkk cant have an octopus card system as hk does? can be used on all transport systems, 7/11, and a multitude of other places,

Think your right about people not trusting the luggage checkin at Makkasan, If they started work on this bad image now people might start to trust in a few years.

[Razzler1973]

I left Hong Kong about a year after the Honkers rail link was sorted and I used it, was ace. They also had the 'in town' check in facility in Central for Cathy. Surely, the benefit is you can check in waaay before the usual 2 or 3 hour check in time so can stroll about without bags? I don't need to check in there and then travel without bags to the airport ... it's really not such a problem to take the bags to the airport. It may be useful if I could drop bags off 5 or 6 hours ahead of time.

Even so, I'd still never use this, just don't 'trust' it, not necessarily theft and this goes for Honkers, Thailand or even England. I am amazed as it is that bags get to where they should all around the world and I don't see the need to further complicate this :/

[ES1]

I've used it and I think there are a few small problems that add up to nobody wanting to use it. First is what others have pointed out about Taxi access. In my case coming from Sukhumvit area middle of the day turned into one of those <deleted> traffic nightmares that is status quo in Bkk quite often. What would have taken me 15 minutes on the MRT ended up being over 1 hour sitting in traffic in a taxi. In that hour I could have easily made it to the airport in that same taxi.

Which brings me to the second problem. Nobody with luggage is going to use the MRT because they check everyone with luggage. So who want's to have to open all their luggage at the MRT station when they can avoid all that by sitting in an air con taxi. So that pretty much kills the second potential advantage of using Makkassan which is the MRT station.

Of course MRT isn't even all that great an option for people without luggage because it's not linked with the station yet. So that is yet another problem.

If they could address those things somehow and provide some assurances that luggage will be safe I think things would improve. To me, luggage at Makkassan is no more or less safe than luggage at the airport so it doesn't bother me to use it if they address the other issues.

Oh, and of course they have to get more airlines in there.

[NanLaew]

... On the way back no taxi would take me to Makkasan on the meter, so I walked and its quite a hike from Soi Nana. ...

That's your first mistake; trying to get one of those parked-up Soi 4 taxi pricks to turn on the meter to ANYWHERE! Better to try and catch a rolling one on Soi Nana or failing that, walk up to Sukhumvit and catch a more ardent type of cabby.

Agreed with your general overview of the train though. I have used it inbound only as I can't see any time-saving on the outbound trip. I found the same last year in KL where coming in and using the faster train and shorter taxi combo from airport to condo was good but the thought of a short taxi ride in heavy traffic from the condo to train station BEFORE a fast trip onwards to the airport just didn't seem to be so expedient. The place is huge though, obviously built for expansion to the full-service check-in for outbound travelers but agreed, their accesibility, links and baggage handling needs to have some serious thought before it becomes a primary transport choice for inbound and outbound travelers.

[VincentRJ]

I was recently in Bangkok and tried getting to the airport by train from Hua Lamphong railway station, partly as an exercise and partly to change my departure date with Thai Airways instead of visiting their office in the city centre.

As I recall, I caught the underground from Hua Lamphong to the nearest station to Makkasan, which I recall was Phetchaburi. This part of the journey was quite convenient. The entrance to the underground is right outside Hua Lamphong railway station.

I was advised there would be signs at the Phetchaburi station pointing to the best exit closest to Makkasan. I didn't see any such sign when I got off the underground train and as a consequence, after walking up a number of stairs and asking a guard at the exit, found I was at the wrong exit for Makkasan.

Walked back down the stairs, enquired at the ticket counter for the Makkasan exit, which I guess I should have done in the first instance, enquired again about half-way along the convoluted route of stairs and corridors before getting out onto the street where I'd been advised I should turn left.

Walked another 200 metres or so towards some giant concrete structure that looked like a skytrain terminal, crossing a few side-roads on the way, and on arrival became totally mystified as to where the entrance was. I found myself heading towards acres of concrete parking areas covered by gigantic concrete beams overhead, and the occasional staircase which I thought might be the entrance.

After a few minutes, an American carrying a small suitcase overtook me, so I asked him the way to the entrance and accompanied him whilst he gave me a negative spiel about the business plan of this new skytrain and the lack of easy access to the terminal.

After he checked through the gate to the platform, I discovered that I was at the wrong gate since I wasn't catching the express train. So we said goodbye and I walked another 50 metres or so to another gate across a deserted expanse of floorways and signs.

From there on, there was no problem, but I was sure glad I was not carrying a heavy suitcase. I was carrying just the small suitcase one takes onto the plane. I normally travel with a 20Kg suitcase plus the carry-on case weighing about 9Kg with laptop and camera.

On the return journey I opted for the slow train to Phaya Thai where I changed lines to get a connection to Phloen Chit which was within 10 minutes' walk to my hotel in Sukhumvit, Soi 1, but nevertheless a walk across a busy exit from a highway, and a walk along the typical narrow pavements in Bangkok which are full of obstacles requiring one to frequently step onto the road.

Again, I think it would have been foolish to attempt such a journey dragging two suitcases on wheels.

Whilst I was very impressed that the total cost of the skytrain from the airport to Phloen Chit was a mere 75 Baht, as opposed to a 350 or 400 Baht taxi ride (depending on the tip), one would have to be either very miserly or very poor to go to all that hassle, when carrying significant baggage, in order to save a mere $10 which wouldn't even pay for 'short time' at Soi Cowboy.

　

[ljerams]

I have a Thai friend who used to work as a baggage handler at Don Mueang Airport before the new Airport was opened.

He told me that he quit the job because he was horrified by the amount of theft he saw everyday!!!

And my experience of the KL Express was very satisfactory; a bit of luggage hauling last year at KL Central but they appeared, I think, to be constructing improved facilities for local transport connections

[isaanbrit]

Either that or he got caught and fired - :-D :-D :-D :-D

(no offense intended)

I have a Thai friend who used to work as a baggage handler at Don Mueang Airport before the new Airport was opened.

He told me that he quit the job because he was horrified by the amount of theft he saw everyday!!!

And my experience of the KL Express was very satisfactory; a bit of luggage hauling last year at KL Central but they appeared, I think, to be constructing improved facilities for local transport connections

[ljerams]

They never get fired even if caught stealing.