Airport Rail Link users increase to 1.4 million per month

[planr]

One gets the impression this railway was designed by someone who doesn't know anything about railways. The stations are ridiculously huge, no thought was given to linking with other railways (eg makkasan). The trains are overcrowded in the rush hours (wait 15 mins for yhe next train at peak times). i would have thought srt would know something about railways !

With respect to the pedestrian connection at Makkasan (and Phaya Thai), it is not that the issue went ignored during the initial planning process, but rather that the connections, particularly to the MRT at Petchaburi, require inter-organizational cooperation (e.g., between the SRT, BMA, BTS, MRTA, etc). The real problem is that there is little to no cooperation as most often, these orgs see themselves in competition.

In terms of station architecture, they may seem huge and overbuilt, but you must consider that they have been built with the future in mind, just as BTS and MRT stations are, with long platform lengths to accomodate longer trains 5, 10 and even 20 years from now.

The overcrowding is essentially due to miscalculations in demand forecasting. In short, planners underestimated demand by a little bit on the City Line and WAY overestimated demand for Express services. As initial rolling stock (carraige) orders were based on these forecasts, the system doesn't have enough City Line trains and its Express trains are empty (which is why one Express train is being put into use on the City Line). Unfortunately the SRTET (airport link operator) doesn't have a budget of its own, it must rely on allocations from the SRT, which has no money. Thus no new rolling stock has been ordered. Given that there is a typically a 2-year lead time for new rolling stock orders, peak hour congestion on the City Line will continue for a few more years.

[smoochy]

Are you aware who operates this railway. It's the same lot who operate the national network. The operations and maintenance standards are no different between the two systems and we are all well aware of how the national network performs.

They have been lucky with the airport train because its relatively new but sooner or later even a new system will become unreliable and unsafe if low (or no) standards of maintenance are applied. Take a peek inside their workshops and you will see a number of brand new trains up on blocks stripped of spare parts to keep the remaining fleet operating. Lord knows what's going on with the other equipment maintenance like track and signalling.

I stopped using this line over a year ago over doubts about its maintenance.

You're joking, right?

You would prefer to take a taxi on a rainy evening than take a train? How's that seatbelt in the back seat working out for you?

I'll roll the dice with a train.