Bangkok Administration considers demolishing Saphan Taksin BTS station

[Jonmarleesco]

A lesson for countries with high unemployment: discourage thinking ahead.

[Ace of Pop]

Could be the Name. Theres nothing named after Hitler in Germany.

[bkkjames]

Could be the Name. Theres nothing named after Hitler in Germany.

Ace, this has been talked about for years.

[Deke]

I agree with the poster who suggested rolling the tracks vertically; similar to the Siam station. It might be difficult to build it and keep the line in service at the same time though.

[tw25rw]

It would still be hard for all the pillars. Will end up with a concrete monster with all the structure going over the neighbouring roads.

[makkam]

Rename it 'Corruption Central' and put a big picture of the Shinawatra family and key cronies at the entrance.

[JacChang]

No please........ all those fares I would be collecting less. I have kids to feed.

[millwall_fan]

The option chosen will doubtless be the one that involves the biggest bungs for BMA officials, Skytrain officials, whoever owns ST bridge and anyone else who can get on the gravy train. That will reduce the budget, then the result will be substandard, then our military dictator will get involved because the army didn't receive its share. Finally, years late the work will be completed. It was ever thus..

[Lakegeneve]

But if they use the third option (demolish the station and people use Surasak) then the track will still be a single one, meaning delays will still occur. Or am I reading it wrong? I guess the delays would be less as trains won't be stopping at Taksin anymore though.

I think the idea is that if they demolish the station they will then have room for a dual track, the removal of the platforms etc will give them that room and remove the bottleneck.

Does indicate that when they constructed it, forward planning wasn't much to the fore.

When they built the BTS back in the 1990s Saphan Taksin was the last station on the line and I suppose nobody gave any thought to the expansion of the network at the time.

You suppose incorrectly.

The BTS was always planned to be extended (3 exts), in fact work on the BTS span across the river started back in 2001.

ST was always planned to be a temporary station until the extension across the river to Thonburi side opened. Part of the problem is that original extension was meant to be 3 stations (with one driectly on the other side of the river) but was reduced to 2 stations due to the BMA funding the ext instead of MOT.

[Lakegeneve]

Here is a render of the planned walkway (last post of the thread), http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/637985-bangkok-administration-to-demolish-saphan-taksin-station-put-in-moving-walkways/page-3

An older thread on the issue, http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/559468-bangkok-to-close-saphan-taksin-skytrain-station-to-ease-bottleneck/

BMA is still attempting to pressure the Central govt to fund the rural Highways Dept to build a new road span. These articles should be read in that light.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

LG, what's the likely long-range outlook here?

Is the people-mover walkway supposed to be the permanent solution connecting BTS passengers between Surasak and the river?

Or is somewhere/somehow there supposed to be a new station on the river, to replace ST in the event it's demolished?

[spidermike007]

I don't know this sounds like a really bad idea to me. This is the station that people use to hook up with the water taxis. Very very busy station. Seems like a hell of a long walk from Surasak to me.

I agree. This is a very convenient station, and is always packed. Seems like it would be a counterproductive move.

Edited October 20, 2014 by spidermike007

[tw25rw]

The y should rebuild it as a normal size station across the river and build a boar terminal to connect with it.

[Lakegeneve]

LG, what's the likely long-range outlook here?

Is the people-mover walkway supposed to be the permanent solution connecting BTS passengers between Surasak and the river?

Or is somewhere/somehow there supposed to be a new station on the river, to replace ST in the event it's demolished?

Difficult to say, there is politics as usual. The more likely the closure of the station and demolition looks like going ahead, the more likely it is that the Central Govt will be pressured to provide funds to the Rural Highways Dept to build for a new (west bound) bridge span for road traffic, or a redesign. However, given that 7 new bridges are planned across the river they may not be able to justify the cost.

They can't really build a new station either in the middle of the span ("on the river") or on the other side given the location of S7.

I suspect that at the end of the day, the walkway will be built AND that the station will be retained in some manner.

[Lakegeneve]

The y should rebuild it as a normal size station across the river and build a boar terminal to connect with it.

They can't (see above). Also, there already is a cross river boat.

However, I really like the idea of putting those wild boars to work to convey people across the bridge. I can just see the TAT campaign for that now.............

[Toany]

I think the main reason for delays is the bunching of trains. I have a view of the bridge from my condo. The other day it had a west bound train at Saphan Taksin station , another west bound train at Krung Tonburi and two East bound trains waiting on the bridge in between these stations. Of course this creates unnecessary delays.