Agents, Airlines Blame SRT For Poor Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link Service

[jfchandler]

It does seem, looking at the various reports, that the ARL as an entity is pretty much broke and cash-strapped, and seemingly surviving at present only on the larger financial position of its parent SRT.

They're apparently having to cannibalize their spare rail cars for spare parts..... And there was a reference to the ARL asking for something like a 2 billion baht operating budget, but only getting 200 or so million approved by SRT, and the article saying they'd have to find the remainder from other sources.... Of course, no elaboration or explanation of how/where those might be produced.

It does indeed make one wonder if they don't have the cash to buy sufficient spare parts needed for their rail cars, how/where are they going to get the funds to build elevated station walkways and various other of their supposed forthcoming project facility improvements.

As for the supposed walkway, I was trying to figure out just how far 130 meters in distance would get one from the Makkasan station. Surely the distance to Petchaburi MRT is longer than that.... But I'm bad with meters... Maybe someone with more time on the ground out at Makkasan can venture just how far 130 meters would reach.

[DP25]

As for the supposed walkway, I was trying to figure out just how far 130 meters in distance would get one from the Makkasan station. Surely the distance to Petchaburi MRT is longer than that.... But I'm bad with meters... Maybe someone with more time on the ground out at Makkasan can venture just how far 130 meters would reach.

Not much further than that. It's really not far at all. Stairs down to the subway just to the left of A, train platform begins right across the street and the station entrance just to the left.

[Jawnie]

Two design issues for the walkway are 1) outbound trains are on the north side of the tracks, so how does the walkway provide access across the tracks (from below, somehow, I guess).

Second, the MRT has a relatively small footprint on which to site the terminus of the walkway. This is complicated by the train tunnels below ground. Together, these make it nearly impossible to construct a walkway that delivers rider directly to the MRT station entrance within existing the station footprint.

It does seem, looking at the various reports, that the ARL as an entity is pretty much broke and cash-strapped, and seemingly surviving at present only on the larger financial position of its parent SRT.

They're apparently having to cannibalize their spare rail cars for spare parts..... And there was a reference to the ARL asking for something like a 2 billion baht operating budget, but only getting 200 or so million approved by SRT, and the article saying they'd have to find the remainder from other sources.... Of course, no elaboration or explanation of how/where those might be produced.

It does indeed make one wonder if they don't have the cash to buy sufficient spare parts needed for their rail cars, how/where are they going to get the funds to build elevated station walkways and various other of their supposed forthcoming project facility improvements.

As for the supposed walkway, I was trying to figure out just how far 130 meters in distance would get one from the Makkasan station. Surely the distance to Petchaburi MRT is longer than that.... But I'm bad with meters... Maybe someone with more time on the ground out at Makkasan can venture just how far 130 meters would reach.

[Jawnie]

I don't want to harp on this endlessly but the fact is that changes in service now could help the Airport line today.

The Airport Link line is really a local commuter line that over 90% of riders are local commuters and less than 10% are going to the airport. SRT managers need to acknowledge this and make appropriate service changes which will have little or no financial impact.

I've been told by station agents that they don't have enough trains to help alleviate the over-crowding on trains or to run trains more often. I was told they don't use the Express trains for this because the seats are different. I think this is nonsense and passengers waiting 15-20 minutes for a train at 9pm would be happy to use the Express cars if pressed into service for this. But SRT won't do this and continues to run empty Express trains while local travelers stand, wait, and watch as empty Express trains come and go.

Case in point. This week at 8:45 pm I arrived at Makkasan station on my way home. I had an 18 minute wait for the next train - that is a outrageous amount of time to wait for a train on a commuter line.

While I and many others waited, two completely empty Express trains passed through the station going in the same direction. When the "right" train arrived, it was packed full! It was past 9pm and we were crowding into a crowded car just to go home. I only travelled one stop and at that stop, over 60 people got off (I counted them). They were not going to the airport, they were all going home but had to wait and then ride a crowded train.

This is a service issue that could be corrected immediately if SRT would change its mindset about the Express Line.

The Airport Link line is really a local commuter line that over 90% of riders are local commuters and less than 10% are going to the airport. SRT needs to acknowledge this and make the needed service changes.

[jfchandler]

Gotta agree with most of what you say above.... Welcome to your friendly local SRT in action...

In their defense, I suppose, IF they're going to continue to operate the Airport Express line, then they've got to deploy enough trains on some kind of barely reasonable schedule to accommodate it...

I don't think SRT has any great surplus of available ARL rail cars... nor the funds to operate them even if they did... (And of course those rail cars aren't the same design/style as any of the other trains the SRT runs, giving them no interoperability). So in the meantime, the City Line gets overrun and overcrowded, and the Express line cars run largely empty...

They could chuck the entire Express Line part of the operation and redeploy to the City Line, which probably makes good sense in a better world... But that would kind of be like admitting their whole original plan and concept for the line was a failure.... which I suspect they'd be loathe to do...

I've taken the ARL to Swampy quite a few times... And even though I live relatively close to Makkasan, every such trip I've taken the Skytrain to Phyathai and then the City Line to the airport... I didn't want to pay the previously higher fare for the Express Line coupled with having to pay a taxi fare to get from home to Makkasan... Or buy an MRT ticket and then have to walk from Petchburi MRT to Makkasan and lug whatever luggage I'm carrying.

Also, the price of a Skytrain trip to Phyathai combined with the City Line ticket to the airport is less than what the regular Express Line fare was... and maybe even less than what the current discounted Express Line fare is.

The 15 minutes or so I'd save on ARL travel time using the Express Line (15 mins to the Airport vs. about 30 minutes on the City Line) would be more than offset by the travel and traffic time that would be eaten up by trying to get between home and Makkasan with its horrible ingress and egress situation.

I think I read in one of the recent articles one of the Thai officials claiming that airport workers at Swampy are among the largest customers/users of the ARL... Something tells me... they're surely not taking the Express Line to and from work.

Edited August 11, 2011 by jfchandler