Makkasan White Elephant - Jaw Droppingly Bad

[bowerboy]

Last week I arrived at Suvarnabumi MRT at 7:50am and had just missed the train going into the city (the train that stops along the way and ends at Pyathai).

As I was going to Asok anyway I though why not get the express and for the first time in my life try out Makkasan station (express terminates at Makkasan now).

I was and am absolutely stunned, staggered and taken aback at just what a MASSIVE white elephant Makkasan is and what a complete and utter waste of money it was. my train departed at 8am and there were 5 people on board...yes peak time with 5 people on the entire train, on a Wednesday work day.

Arriving at Makkasan you come to a station that is perhaps half the size of the departure area at Suvarnabumi but is COMPLETELY deserted with absolutely no one there apart from the 5 people getting off the train. Following the few exit signs you come out in the middle of the car park and then have to walk through the dark car park out onto the road.

Once on the road there was not a single taxi or motocy in the taxi area. You can walk to the MRT from here but amazingly there is no sidewalk from the exit area to the MRT so you have to walk on the road with all the traffic.

The lack of thought and planning is just mind boggling. They are lucky no one ever uses it which is probaably why you dont read more about it being such a white elephant.

Honestly I have never seen such a useless project as this anywhere in my life. The scale of this white elephant and the amount of money wasted is just totally mind boggling. If you have any interest in bangkok you really should take a look at it one day...I promise you wont belive your eyes.

[ATF]

It's called planning for the future. Something that the Thai Government have been criticized for not doing in the past. The Airport Link is going to extended all the way to Pattaya and Chonburi. Just give it a few more years.

[mrtoad]

Yeah, it is a White Elephant at present, but that whole area has a lot of planned development. We shall see

[SoiBiker]

You can walk to the MRT from here but amazingly there is no sidewalk from the exit area to the MRT so you have to walk on the road with all the traffic.

Or you could use the nice overhead walkway they built to make the link more convenient.

[Sena Dave]

A lot of these rail projects are pushed forward by the political friends of the construction companies. In Malaysia at the moment they are throwing taxpayers money at it by the Billion all for nice big carve up between the constructors and the politicians. Zero quality and zero safety the project ends up with the cheapest materials being used by unskilled immigrant labour . You end up with very expensive crap that nobody wants or uses

[DP25]

The airport rail link is packed during rush hour. But not on the express line, on the commuter line. At 8am in the morning there are not going to be many people going from the airport. But there are TONS of people using the trains at that time, just not on the that particular train. At other times the express line will have more people as well, but not at 8am.

[saakura]

Dont know which station you have been to, but it is very conveniently linked to the MRT by a nice covered walkway and escalator.

[ripstanley]

You can walk to the MRT from here but amazingly there is no sidewalk from the exit area to the MRT so you have to walk on the road with all the traffic.

Or you could use the nice overhead walkway they built to make the link more convenient.

That was what we used when we were in Bangkok in May. Just followed the signs.

[ricklev]

Signs could have been better when I was there not long after the walkway opened. Maybe they improved it since then.

For years it was impossible for people to figure out how to get to the Thailand Cultural Center from the Thailand Cultural Center MRT stop because of a complete lack of signs.

[mrtoad]

Yeah it took a few years to get the walkway though

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[samran]

I've always maintained that the line as planned was a joke but and it would morph into a suburban train line, which it has.

Problem is that it is effectively run by SRT which means that even a functioning suburban line is beyond their comprehension. Having trains departing every 15 mins is a joke.

[wordchild]

The express train (higher priced) thing is a bit of a joke really. There are only two lines in and out, ie no overtaking ,which ever train leaves first , express or stopper will get to the airport first.

[bowerboy]

5 customers at 8am peak time...seems pretty crazy to me...although that is partially because the line between Makkasan and Pyathai for 12 months for scheduled maintenance.

I definitely didnt see any signs to the walkway but glad you pointed out it is there.

[mrtoad]

SRT couldnt organise an orgy in a brothel.

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[ripstanley]

Sorry there may be a bit of confussion from my posting. We used the all station not the express.

[Globalist]

There is nothing wrong with having an airport express train per se. Such procects are almost always successful.

As the OP rightly observes, the problem is that they stumbled on the finishing line, which made the project unsuccessful.

If they had made proper air-conditioned underground connections directly to the two BTS/MRT stations, I'm sure it would have been a success.

Edited July 11, 2014 by Globalist

[Misterwhisper]

I think the main problem with the ill-conceived Airport Express (i.e. NOT the commuter trains) is that for most travelers it is simply too inconvenient and also quite pricey.

One would first have to get - perhaps with a lot of luggage - from one's hotel/residence to Makkasan station, then most of the time wait in sweltering heat on the non-airconditioned platform for the train to depart.

Ticket used to cost 150 Baht per person, i.e. 300 baht for a couple. I think they have decreased the price now to something like 100 Baht per traveler. But even then - and factoring in the time and cost for a taxi to get to the station - it doesn't seem such a good deal. Just taking a taxi right from the hotel probably is not only much more convenient, but in many cases likely also faster and cheaper.

[thairookie]

You can walk to the MRT from here but amazingly there is no sidewalk from the exit area to the MRT so you have to walk on the road with all the traffic.

Or you could use the nice overhead walkway they built to make the link more convenient.

There is a high tech name. It's called SKYWALK !

[taony]

It's called planning for the future. Something that the Thai Government have been criticized for not doing in the past. The Airport Link is going to extended all the way to Pattaya and Chonburi. Just give it a few more years.

Planning for the future? Are you serious? ARL is nothing but a disaster. It is horshoed in above the existing right of way because it wad easy. There is not one single station that has access to it. Not one. They are all horribly planned. Not one station would pass muster in a normal country. And the station designs are god awful too. They follow the bts gameplan of mismanagement.

And i think people have been living here too long if they think the transfer to mrt is convenient. Unbelievable!!

The station should have been built straddling the road so there are exits on both sides of the road from below.

Blah blah traffic. Its not difficult if you hire someone that can think about planning for more than three seconds.

ARL is a disaster and the fact that the express trains are running short for one year so they can fix the tracks they built wrong is just one indicator.

-*I typed this myself*-

[OMGImInPattaya]

There was just a piece in the paper saying exactly that...what a farce and disaster the SRT made of the Makkasan train station development.

[Minnehaha]

I have taken the ARL for transport in town and to/from airport, but only when I did not have luggage. Otherwise it saves a bit of time but not worth it to carry the bags up and down from the stations in town.

I am always stunned at how useless access /egress is.

I think there are 2 reasons why the ground area and exact location of stations are so counter-intuitive (stupid). When planning these things there are so many other mafia to deal with - owners of the land for the station and nearby, taxi companies, businesses, BTS and MRT, Bangkok Municipality, politicians of numbers and type and interests too numerous to list.

It is nearly impossible to succeed against such forces.

In Thailand, things tend to work OK, when the corruption gets sorted out. In this and many other projects (BTS extension) they never do or it takes so long it delays the projects completion. Another good example is the Motorway to Pattaya and Eastern Seaboard, and the split to Chonburi. It is all about corruption and competitive forces for the $$. If it gets sorted out - great. If not: you wind up with the ARL as it currently is.

[tw25rw]

If that area is developed a bit, it could be the new Nana as the old one is redeveloped and gentrified.

[bowerboy]

Yeah Andrew Biggs wrote about it this week in his Sunday column...said pretty much the same as me.

[MW72]

Every time I have arrived at Makasan from Swampy I've had no problem finding a taxi without walking too far. Last time I left Makasan to travel to Swampy was at 6pm on a Thursday night. The gf and I paid 35 Baht each for the standard train but the platform was busy and when the train rolled in it was packed. We didn't bother trying to board and went straight to the express train. 90 Baht each but it was definitely worth the extra. The train was pretty empty so seating was no problem.

I can understand the locals not wanting to pay the additional fare and I would assume that most on the standard train are not going to the airport but to the other stops in between. As for the access and egress it does seem that it hasn't been planned very well. It is all a bit chaotic. There definitely need to be some improvement in this aspect.

[In Search of Space]

I used to get the train and back to swampy every week, was easier to get to Pattaya from the airport rather than come into Bangkok. Preferred the express train as it was empty and could sit down, but as time went on, I think one or two express trains broke down with no money to repair and so the frequency became varied, so I always just missed them ! So regularly took the commuter, always packed

[scorecard]

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A lot of these rail projects are pushed forward by the political friends of the construction companies. In Malaysia at the moment they are throwing taxpayers money at it by the Billion all for nice big carve up between the constructors and the politicians. Zero quality and zero safety the project ends up with the cheapest materials being used by unskilled immigrant labour . You end up with very expensive crap that nobody wants or uses

Thailand also. About one year back it was announced that there would be a second airport built in Chiang Mai. There was so much outcry that nothing more was said.

CM has no need whatever, even for several decades to think about a second airport. The existing airport works quite well, good location, and is nowhere near peak or overflow usage.

Just another example of creating useless / unneeded projects to open up very big budgets for scaly politicians, scaly officials and business cronies to get their sticky fingers into.

[ByblosYuNaiSoi]

You can walk to the MRT from here but amazingly there is no sidewalk from the exit area to the MRT so you have to walk on the road with all the traffic.

Or you could use the nice overhead walkway they built to make the link more convenient.

My experiences with the Airport Rail Link have been pretty flawless. There has always been a decent crowd;

went to BKK at rush hour, and it was very crowded. The walkway from Petchaburi MRT to Makkasan Rail Link is easy, with escalator and smooth walkways to roll my bag. Admittedly the rail station does seem bigger than necessary.

[NanLaew]

All that massive acreage of land in and around Makkasan is SRT-owned. When someone comes up with the amount of money SRT wants for that land, it will be developed... but not any time soon IMHO.

SRT built Makkasan Terminal on the old premise, 'Build it and they will come." They just didn't stipulate when.

[tw25rw]

All that massive acreage of land in and around Makkasan is SRT-owned. When someone comes up with the amount of money SRT wants for that land, it will be developed... but not any time soon IMHO.

SRT built Makkasan Terminal on the old premise, 'Build it and they will come." They just didn't stipulate when.

Yep, tons of potential wasted. That area could be a new Nana/Kao San if they wanted it to be.

[samran]

All that massive acreage of land in and around Makkasan is SRT-owned. When someone comes up with the amount of money SRT wants for that land, it will be developed... but not any time soon IMHO.

SRT built Makkasan Terminal on the old premise, 'Build it and they will come." They just didn't stipulate when.

To be fair with rail, build it and they will come is a fairly well observed phenomena.

What they didn't count on was the economics. It is cheaper and easier to get a taxi. Perhaps when the airport was being built and the promise there would only be AOT taxis at the airport terminal (remember that?!?) the justification for rail would have been a tad stronger (but not much), but now the taxis are there, the ARL is a joke.

The fact that SRT couldn't envisage it as a commuter rail as well just shows how inept they actually are. The day is coming, and it isn't too far off, where I suspect the whole thing is broken up.

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