More Car Parks Linked To Mass Transit Systems

[george]

Government to build more public car parks linked to mass transit systems

BANGKOK: -- The government plans to build more large-scaled public car park linked to Bangkok's mass transit systems as part of national energy conservation drives, according to the Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO).

EPPO said on Thursday that the plan followed an overwhelming welcome by motorists for two existing public car parks located near Mo Chit skytrain station and Bang Sue subway station--more than 1,000 cars are parked at each of the two facilities everyday.

Under the plan, similar large-scaled car parks will be built near the Future Park Rangsit Shopping Centre, the Mall Bang Kae and the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC) in Bangna area.

Feasibility studies would soon be conducted before the new plan would be finalized, said the EPPO.

The initiative is aimed to encourage more people to use mass transit services and leave their cars at the car parks to save domestic energy consumption and reduce oil imports.

--TNA 2006-06-15

[TokyoT]

Good idea, but how long will this remain in the planning stages, and will they use the same contractors that are still working on the airport?

Even better yet, hows about they extend the existing lines and build all these new car parks even further out? How about a ring system (sky or underground) that circles BKK as well? What about the 10 other lines that were in the works?

Wake me when someone in the Thai government gets off their a** and actually does something to improve the mass transit (sky train or underground - or even those fume spewing buses) system in BKK.

[Chang_paarp]

Not wishing the land to go to waste, they could use the place as a night market or a weekend market to help the unfortunate folk who missed some product at one of the others.

[ovenman]

Not wishing the land to go to waste, they could use the place as a night market or a weekend market to help the unfortunate folk who missed some product at one of the others.

Half of the car park will probably get rented out as shop stall space anyway.

[jdinasia]

Good idea, but how long will this remain in the planning stages, and will they use the same contractors that are still working on the airport?

Even better yet, hows about they extend the existing lines and build all these new car parks even further out? How about a ring system (sky or underground) that circles BKK as well? What about the 10 other lines that were in the works?

Wake me when someone in the Thai government gets off their a** and actually does something to improve the mass transit (sky train or underground - or even those fume spewing buses) system in BKK.

We'll wake you when you tell us how to pay for everything

[TokyoT]

We'll wake you when you tell us how to pay for everything

Kind of hard for me to give you information on how to pay for it if you don’t wake me first.

Well they do charge to use the mass transit systems – so they do have at least one source of cash flow to draw from. Then there are the various taxes the Thai government collects, and if I recall BKK was willing to extend the BTS on their own before Toxin got his panties in a bunch because he would not be controlling that expansion. So I think there are some funds already availible.

Since it appears that the government does not use the fees from the National parks to actual maintain them some of that money could also be used, especially after they rape the farang by raising the rates to 400 baht in September.

Or how about some of that 1 billion baht they are talking about using to promote tourism, surely they could use a bit of that.

If they extend the system then fewer people would need to drive to the car parks to actually have access to the system. So they might be able to reduce the number of car parks they plan to build and use that money to extend the system.

Here are a few revenue ideas as well to raise the necessary funds:

Raise tax on gas/LPN/diesel

Raise tax on cigs and alcohol

Raise road tolls

Raise rates on existing mass transit systems

Raise vehicle related taxes, and tie the tax to the value of the vehicle

Implement a government sponsored lottery specifically to generate funds to be used for mass transit improvements

Implement special tax on all gold transactions – tax on all buying and selling at all gold shops

Implement a capital gains tax – could have generated a few baht off the AIS deal

Then there is the elephant in the room – if the government and major projects of this nature were not so freakn’ corrupt then they would have probably had the money/ability to do all of this already.

Can I go back to sleep now?

[jdinasia]

We'll wake you when you tell us how to pay for everything

Kind of hard for me to give you information on how to pay for it if you don’t wake me first.

Well they do charge to use the mass transit systems – so they do have at least one source of cash flow to draw from. Then there are the various taxes the Thai government collects, and if I recall BKK was willing to extend the BTS on their own before Toxin got his panties in a bunch because he would not be controlling that expansion. So I think there are some funds already availible.

Since it appears that the government does not use the fees from the National parks to actual maintain them some of that money could also be used, especially after they rape the farang by raising the rates to 400 baht in September.

Or how about some of that 1 billion baht they are talking about using to promote tourism, surely they could use a bit of that.

If they extend the system then fewer people would need to drive to the car parks to actually have access to the system. So they might be able to reduce the number of car parks they plan to build and use that money to extend the system.

Here are a few revenue ideas as well to raise the necessary funds:

Raise tax on gas/LPN/diesel

and raise inflation ...

Raise tax on cigs and alcohol

ok ... but they have already raised taxes twice in recent memory

Raise road tolls

and raise inflation

Raise rates on existing mass transit systems

still having trouble on ridership but a rate hike just went through on MRTA

Raise vehicle related taxes, and tie the tax to the value of the vehicle

Raise rates on them all? hel_l there goes that pesky inflation thing again!

Implement a government sponsored lottery specifically to generate funds to be used for mass transit improvements

Sure another Lottery in a country where gambling is illegal ... not to mention that lotteries are a tax on the poor and the stupid

Implement special tax on all gold transactions – tax on all buying and selling at all gold shops

a special tax? why is that? why would you want to do that? shouldn't savings etc be encouraged?

Implement a capital gains tax – could have generated a few baht off the AIS deal

Ah ... yes !! Let's slow investment and raise inflation!

Then there is the elephant in the room – if the government and major projects of this nature were not so freakn’ corrupt then they would have probably had the money/ability to do all of this already.

Actually agree that corruption is an issue in major contracts ... but ...

Can I go back to sleep now?

You woke up?

Funds from user fees/ passengers are not paying for the MRTA system yet ... so the point is basically moot ....

I think BKK was looking at Gov funds to extend the rail system but they promised to extend across the river and were trying to do so ... since the bridge is done etc it's not a MAJOR expenditure ... and yes we all would love to see BTS/Mass transit available to Thonburi

There are projects on the books that are aimed at increasing masstransit systems in BKK ...

[Crossy]

Under the plan, similar large-scaled car parks will be built near the Future Park Rangsit Shopping Centre, the Mall Bang Kae and the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC) in Bangna area.

I'm not sure about the others, but Future Park Rangsit is not particularly near any of the planned mass-transit routes, it's about 2km to Rangsit station so when (if) the Red Line gets built it will only be a 30 minute walk from the 'Park' to the 'Ride'.

[TokyoT]

Funds from user fees/ passengers are not paying for the MRTA system yet ... so the point is basically moot ....

I think BKK was looking at Gov funds to extend the rail system but they promised to extend across the river and were trying to do so ... since the bridge is done etc it's not a MAJOR expenditure ... and yes we all would love to see BTS/Mass transit available to Thonburi

There are projects on the books that are aimed at increasing masstransit systems in BKK ...

Seems like you have a great fear of inflation, and too much inflation can indeed be bad. However, I can not agree that any/all increases in the above mentioned fees/taxes would directly result in an increase in inflation.

Might have already increased taxes on cigs and alcohol twice, but as can be seen in another thread on this board more and more Thai are drinking, and starting to drink earlier – so there appears that there is still plenty of room to increase taxes in this area.

In regard to the lottery being a tax on the poor and stupid – If they are that stupid better they give their money to someone else to spend for them anyway.

Yes, saving can be good, but too much saving means you are not putting the money to use which is bad. In addition putting your savings in gold can be a dangerous proposition (of course the recent trends in the value of gold make gold a good investment right now) – especially in times of high inflation. So if you let me implement some of my other taxes, I’ll give up the gold tax to help protect the poor peoples investments from the effects of inflation.

While excessive capital gains taxes could certainly have adverse effects on investment, certainly there is room to at least raise above ZERO.

There may be projects on the books to expand the mass transit system, but they do no one any good as long as they remain only on the books. If I recall there were at one point talking about a 10 line expansion, which would have been great. But I would settle for them to just start physical work on expanding the existing lines, or even just installing one new line.

I just think there are better things they could be doing with this money rather than building these car parks. IMHO the real need lies with expanding the system.

If all else fails turn to the chickens:

Maybe they can work out some kind of chickens for services deal with the Japanese or Germans to build the system, like they were trying to work out for those fighter jets.

[Plus]

Big mass-transit projects are beyond Thai government's level of competence. They can find ways to squeeze more money out of people, but the more they collect they more they steal. Alcohol and autos are two biggest tax contributors providing about 80% of all taxes. Did we get at least half decent road system out of that? No.

It took them half a century to build the airport, and it's so mired in corruption, delays, chest beating, cracks and all. Mass transit project is four times bigger.

Car parks are ok, they can build them pretty fast. Bringing mass transint lines to them is another question. Who need a car park at Rangsit if there's no BTS line anywhere near there in forseeble future.

[TokyoT]

Plus – Sad state of things isn’t it? Would be nice to have them simply admit it, and focus on doing things they are cable of, problem is I am not sure what that might be exactly. As you point out it appears even the car park idea is over there head.

BTW – In regard to capital gains tax and the possible limiting effect it might have on investment in Thailand. If Thailand was really all that interested in the attractiveness of investing in Thailand they probably would not make it difficult for small foreign investors to open/own 100% of a business here in Thailand. Yea, they might bend over backwards to help big business, but why place the hurdles as high as they do on small foreign businesses?