Bt20 Fare For Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link Routes To Start Sunday

[webfact]

Bt20 fare for Airport Link routes to start Sunday

BANGKOK, Sept 28 - The Airport Rail Link also known as Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link is to start collecting one fare at Bt20 for all routes on Sunday.

SRT Electrified Train (SRTET) Company's public relations manager Aim-atcha Pongpanpanu said the flat-rate fare promotion is the government's policy for Airport Rail Link's City Line, which is usually priced at Bt15-45/journey.

Passengers who only travel one stop will however be charged less at Bt15/journey.

Those carrying a student smart pass originally given a 20-per cent discount and those having a senior smart pass with a 50-per cent discount will still be offered the one-fare privilege.

The promotional price will take effect only from 11am-2pm daily from Sunday through Dec 31 as a thank you for passengers using the service and to encourage more customers to use Airport Link. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-09-28

[asiawatcher]

Nice - but not many PAX coming and going at present during the wet season and very overcrowded (same as MRT and BTS) when they do a milk run stopping at each station. Put on more carriages and it will be worth while.

[watcharacters]

Nice - but not many PAX coming and going at present during the wet season and very overcrowded (same as MRT and BTS) when they do a milk run stopping at each station. Put on more carriages and it will be worth while.

I haven't ridden the train a bunch but each time I did the non-express train was pretty much filled to capacity seat wise.

[impulse]

I've taken the airport express quite a few times to find it pretty much dead empty at 90 baht.

A couple of times, I've taken the local line all the way to the airport and found it extremely busy at (I think) 35 or 45 baht.

And I had a point, but poorly made, but I can't delete the entire post.

Oh well...Old timer's disease.

[rheinwiese]

Read the fine print: The 20 Baht price only from 11am-2pm.

[lomatopo]

Ridership on the City Line is quite low mid-day, so this "promotion" is both meant to spur ridership at off-peak hours on the City Line (only) and somewhat address the Pheu Thai "20 baht" platform plank (from the most recent election).

[SeaVisionBurma]

Nice - but not many PAX coming and going at present during the wet season and very overcrowded (same as MRT and BTS) when they do a milk run stopping at each station. Put on more carriages and it will be worth while.

Contradictory? not many pax coming and going at present....very overcrowded.

I caught the city line back yesterday at around 1pm. Completely full.

Express as usual was virtually empty.

The sooner they sort out more city line trains and less express trains the better

[mancub]

There won't be many (any) AirAsia Pax using it now either , as they've been forced out of Swampy !

[GeorgeO]

Nice - but not many PAX coming and going at present during the wet season and very overcrowded (same as MRT and BTS) when they do a milk run stopping at each station. Put on more carriages and it will be worth while.

I was on there a couple of days ago and it reminded me of the trains system in Japan, with people pushing those already on to ensure they could get in. We ended up like canned sardines...!!

[Baloo22]

Took a one week trip to Bangkok earlier this month and used the Express to Phaya Thai. They had a special round-trip ticket good for two weeks for 150baht. Worked great for me! I don't know how long this has been in effect nor how long it will remain. IMO, if you want to connect to the BTS, or even just get closer to downtown, this is a great way to go. I'm thinking that the City Line is being used by a lot of locals as another "BTS" line, rather than transport to the airport.

[SeaVisionBurma]

I'm thinking that the City Line is being used by a lot of locals as another "BTS" line, rather than transport to the airport.

Correct re City Line - exactly what it is used for....

[Lakegeneve]

I'm thinking that the City Line is being used by a lot of locals as another "BTS" line, rather than transport to the airport.

Correct re City Line - exactly what it is used for....

Exactly! The City Line is designed as a normal suburban line for people who live along the eastern corridor. It is not meant to be a BTS metro style line, it doesn't have the frequency of a metro, and won't for a decade, and the stations are too few & too far apart to be compared with a metro.

What it has done is bring the SRT into the late 20th century by having a quality suburban service with a regular frequency. As much as the two suburban red lines will do once they commence operations. (leaving aside the issue that they are narrow gauge and diesel in the case of the Taling Chan red line).

[Baloo22]

I'm thinking that the City Line is being used by a lot of locals as another "BTS" line, rather than transport to the airport.

Correct re City Line - exactly what it is used for....

Exactly! The City Line is designed as a normal suburban line for people who live along the eastern corridor. It is not meant to be a BTS metro style line, it doesn't have the frequency of a metro, and won't for a decade, and the stations are too few & too far apart to be compared with a metro.

What it has done is bring the SRT into the late 20th century by having a quality suburban service with a regular frequency. As much as the two suburban red lines will do once they commence operations. (leaving aside the issue that they are narrow gauge and diesel in the case of the Taling Chan red line).

It seems to me that there are two different functions being performed by the ARL, for better or for worse.

Function 1 is rapid/mass transport from Suvarnabhumi Airport to downtown Bangkok and reverse. The Express lines to Phaya Thai and Makkasan seem to do that. Perhaps not perfectly, but it worked great for my trip! I paid 150baht round trip and it was pretty much hassle free.

Function 2 is a local mass transit line like one of the "BTS" lines. I have not travelled on the City Line. How does it differ from one of the BTS lines?

They are trying to perform both functions with the same system/materials/equipment. There are bound to be problems but isn't it a step in the right direction?

[Lakegeneve]

I'm thinking that the City Line is being used by a lot of locals as another "BTS" line, rather than transport to the airport.

Correct re City Line - exactly what it is used for....

Exactly! The City Line is designed as a normal suburban line for people who live along the eastern corridor. It is not meant to be a BTS metro style line, it doesn't have the frequency of a metro, and won't for a decade, and the stations are too few & too far apart to be compared with a metro.

What it has done is bring the SRT into the late 20th century by having a quality suburban service with a regular frequency. As much as the two suburban red lines will do once they commence operations. (leaving aside the issue that they are narrow gauge and diesel in the case of the Taling Chan red line).

It seems to me that there are two different functions being performed by the ARL, for better or for worse.

Function 1 is rapid/mass transport from Suvarnabhumi Airport to downtown Bangkok and reverse. The Express lines to Phaya Thai and Makkasan seem to do that. Perhaps not perfectly, but it worked great for my trip! I paid 150baht round trip and it was pretty much hassle free.

Function 2 is a local mass transit line like one of the "BTS" lines. I have not travelled on the City Line. How does it differ from one of the BTS lines?

They are trying to perform both functions with the same system/materials/equipment. There are bound to be problems but isn't it a step in the right direction?

Everything in this list is mass rapid transit in BKK: ARL, BTS, MRT and BRT.

The ARL is two lines, the Express and an all stop suburban line called City Line. In the future this suburban line will have 10 carriages and run at a metro style frequency in peak hours but that was planned for 2026 though pax numbers have been higher so expect a few years earlier. It will also be extended as will the Express line which will go to DMK.

The Cityline is not a metro line. Idk where you are from but does your city have metro and suburban services? Think of London, Paris or Tokyo as excellent examples of cities with large intergrated metro networks and large suburban networks but which are seperated.

The distinction is related to a number of factors such as station distance, length of the line, tracj gauge, rolling stock capacity and especially frequency.... amongst others. It can be blurred in some instances and is irrelevant in others. However, the fact remains the Cityline is not designed as metro line. It would have needed 4-5 times the rolling stock to have metro style frequency and would have at least 15-20 stations given its length.

Some line facts may show the obvious difference:

SRT ARL Cityline: 28 km , 8 stations, 5 trains

BTSC Sukhumvit line: 23km, 22 stations, 35 trains

BCML MRT line: 21km 18 stations, 19 trains

At the end of the day the issue is moot given that there is currently not enough rolling stock - you can see info on when extra rolling stock is coming in the Airport Link thread - and thus frequencies cannot be increased to what they need to be.

[josephbloggs]

The ARL is two lines, the Express and an all stop suburban line called City Line. In the future this suburban line will have 10 carriages and run at a metro style frequency in peak hours but that was planned for 2026 though pax numbers have been higher so expect a few years earlier. It will also be extended as will the Express line which will go to DMK.

Hi LG,

If there is a plan to have a metro style frequency in the future, how would this work in conjunction with the Express trains? Currently I believe Hua Mark station is the only place where the Express trains can pass the City Line trains. Isn't there a limit to how frequent the City Line trains can be before it impacts on the Express trains (as they would be stacked up behind them)? Just curious.

[asanee]

Exactly! The City Line is designed as a normal suburban line for people who live along the eastern corridor.

AND to bring the 10.000+ airport workers to their work-much quicker as the buses which need another silly change at that now nearly deserted BUsterminal. PLus that its intended to be extended -also over the SRT lines,-along the Don Muang line to Rangsit.

[Lakegeneve]

Exactly! The City Line is designed as a normal suburban line for people who live along the eastern corridor.

AND to bring the 10.000+ airport workers to their work-much quicker as the buses which need another silly change at that now nearly deserted BUsterminal. PLus that its intended to be extended -also over the SRT lines,-along the Don Muang line to Rangsit.

With respect Khun Asanee, I may have misunderstood you but I think that you are might be confusing two SRT suburban lines as the ARL Cityline in NOT intended to be extended to DMK, only the Express Line will be. Also, the line planned to be built from Bang Sue to Rangsit is the SRT Dark Red line, (meter, gauge electric). This will eventually be extended to Hualumphong, WWY and onto Mahachai.

It is also worth nothing that under current plans the SRT intends to build another suburban line along the ARL line which will be meter gauge and diesel as an extension the just completed but yet to be opened SRT Light Red Line (meter gauge, diesel from Bang Sue to Taling Chan.

Thankfully, this later line is now under review due to the obvious duplication when the Cityline could just be extended to Bang Sue. Of course the obvious question is why build 3 different, incompatible lines!?! (Cityline - standard gauge electric. Light Red Line - meter gauge, diesel - though to be electrified at a later date. Dark Red Line - meter gauge, electric)