Airport Rail Link to resume normal operation hours due to deficit

[Lite Beer]

Airport Rail Link to resume normal operation hours due to deficit

BANGKOK, 21 March 2015 (NNT) – Airport Rail Link is planning to resume its normal operation hours after its extended timetable has proven to be loss-making.

Board chairman of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) Lt.Gen. Tawatchai Samutsakorn disclosed that the SRT would next month inform Suvarnabhumi Airport of the plan to call off the service extension of airport link.

Suvarnabhumi Airport earlier requested the SRT to lengthen its airport rail link service by another half an hour to cater for passengers arriving late at night at the airport. The SRT agreed with the request, adding in March two more trains after midnight that run non-stop from the airport to Phaya Thai Station.

The number of passengers during the extended hours, however, has failed to meet the SRT target of 100 persons per train, causing Airport Rail Link’s post-midnight operation to be unprofitable.

Once Airport Rail Link has resumed its normal operation hours, passengers will be able to board the train between 6 hrs. and midnight instead of 00.30 hrs.

-- NNT 2015-03-22

[tx22cb]

Why don't the SRT offer a choice - have extended service, but charge a higher price for trips after midnight?

[trogers]

And the BTS at Phaya Thai complements the extended hours of the Airport Link?

Is not, a taxi from the airport seems less of a hassle.

[tinhead]

Unprofitable because nobody knows about it. Also, in the last couple months while arriving on EK385 HKG to BKK at 23:15 and then fast-tracking it so I could make the last City Line Train, it always looked like the Express service was permanently closed and unmanned. They even have a sign blockading the entrance.

Incompetent? Or is someone is setting the service up to fail on purpose?

[Mitker]

Is the main objective of such public service to be "profitable"?

A better approach may be to promote it more efficiently instead of waiting for the passengers to just discover the service is available.

(as for me, an irresponsible taxi driver is sure the last option between downtown and Suvanacracks)

[KhnomKhnom]

It is a mystery for a train to stop running just at the time people need it. The problem of this specific service ........

-A train schedule must be in place for a long time, at least a year, for people to get used to depending on it.

-P.R. and good signs would help.

-people arriving at midnight are likely to be the most confused, sleepy, bummed out, folks least likely to cope with finding a train.

Tops is if you arrive with lots of bags, getting to and on the train is a huge hassle.

Likely taxi services love the stoppage.

[Estrada]

Unprofitable because nobody knows about it. Also, in the last couple months while arriving on EK385 HKG to BKK at 23:15 and then fast-tracking it so I could make the last City Line Train, it always looked like the Express service was permanently closed and unmanned. They even have a sign blockading the entrance.

Incompetent? Or is someone is setting the service up to fail on purpose?

Actually the Airport Link Express service has been out of action for months and a spokesman at SRT Suvarnphum told me that they are not going to reopen the Airport Link Service, perhaps for another two years. The only line running is the Citilink stopping at all stations to Phayathai. However a few trains are the 4 carriage former Airport Link rolling stock. The service they are talking about stopping was an extra express service stopping only at Phaythai. This late night service only started on March 1st and was not advertised apart from a notice board at the station. Their web site has not been updated for a long time. SRT are just totally incompetent.

[dunnman99]

Just amazing. I first used this service during the soft opening a couple years back and my buddy who was living in BKK was asking how I got to the hotel so quickly the evening I arrived. Even he had no idea there was an express train late in the evening and I was one of only a handfull of people on the train. Quick, cheap, clean and safe that is why I decided to try the train.

I ended up using it several times more over the last couple years, at least when it was running.

Yes, incompetence and lack of advertising has doomed this project from the beginning. Every hotel and van operator was telling me the train was closed, took too long or was out of my way. "Taxi is easier", "Van is easier" is all I heard. Got my FREE shuttle from the hotel to Phaya Thai stn and took the train from there. Used to be a FREE return if you traveled the same day as well, just in case you had to take someone to the Airport. I saw the checkin stations at the entry terminal but never saw them operating. I was hoping the station would be something like the one in Hong Kong, but alas it was never to occur.

Really a shame. If the service would have been hyped up, or actual baggage service available and people at the train services, it would have been extremely profitable. Everytime I showed up to use it at the airport, the van and car rental desk said it was closed and the information desk outside the exit of customs had no idea what I was talking about, when I arrived at the ticket counter/machine it was a ghost town and the only people there where lost travelers who followed me out of curiosity to see if I had a secret taxi or easier way to get to town.

I did my best to spread the word, but I was just one man.

Really a shame.

[cooked]

They 'forgot' to order replacement parts, so the train is no longer running. Maybe I got that wrong: they forgot to budget for replacement parts... or they forgot to check on where the money was going. Read in the B Post a year ago.

[solstan]

I used the express a couple of times and the normal one to. The problem is that if you have a lot of bags you have to carry or drag them as there are no easy way to enter the train ...
Travelling litem perfect. Hanling 30-40 kg ... not so ...
But, clean and fast and f I arrive after 8 in the morning it is a god way to travel to the city

To travel from the city ... well I am still waiting for a taxi driver to find the departure entrance on the back, upper level

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just to be clear here - they're not canceling the ARL City Line service overall.

They just canceling some extended late night service (after midnight) that they had only just recently added. Which, as pointed out above, connected to the Phyathai BTS line, which still closes by midnight. So no available transit connection there.

All in all, another do it now, and fail to think about whether it would actually work, plan from the powers that be. Kudos to them!!!!

[Estrada]

Just to be clear here - they're not canceling the ARL City Line service overall.

They just canceling some extended late night service (after midnight) that they had only just recently added. Which, as pointed out above, connected to the Phyathai BTS line, which still closes by midnight. So no available transit connection there.

All in all, another do it now, and fail to think about whether it would actually work, plan from the powers that be. Kudos to them!!!!

Just to be clear. There is no Airport Rail Link which went from Suvarnaphum to Makasan only. Only the Citiline service, stopping at all stations to Phayathai, is in operation. The problem is the Citilink trains are 3 carriages and if you are lucky you get an old ARL 4 car train.

[dantilley]

And the BTS at Phaya Thai complements the extended hours of the Airport Link?

Is not, a taxi from the airport seems less of a hassle.

That's a good point. No point in an arriving tourist getting an airport link train if you can't then get a BTS or MRT afterwards, unless you're staying in one of the few hotels near an airport link station.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just to be clear. There is no Airport Rail Link which went from Suvarnaphum to Makasan only. Only the Citiline service, stopping at all stations to Phayathai, is in operation.

The regular City Line trains stop at all stations, unlike the currently suspended Express Line.

But the now soon-to-be canceled (the OP article doesn't give any date) two-late night trains were, according to the original announcement, direct nonstop runs to Phyathai and not stopping along the way.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/803087-airport-rail-link-adds-two-trains-from-suvarnabhumi-to-cope-with-surge-in-passengers/

The extra trains depart from the airport at 12:15 am and 12:30 am and travel non-stop to Phayathai Station.

Edited March 23, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[dunnman99]

Ah,

Sorry I misunderstood. I took the city line once due to the express to Makasan being off-line.

So now the express is completely out of service? That really sucks.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The City Line, ever since the service started, has always by far been the more popular and most used part of the service -- even when there was still an Express Line running prior to its suspension.

The City Line is used by locals just the same as they use the BTS and MRT, and also by airport customers. That's because the City Line fare has always been cheaper, the trains ran more often, and people arriving from airport flights could travel to and exit at any station location they wanted, not just the former Express Line's stops at Makasan and Phyathai.

Even back when the Express Line service was running, I almost always took the City Line when arriving at Suvarnabhumi -- if I took the ARL at all.

If I was arriving with a lot of luggage as typical from a long-distance international flight, I'd take a taxi, because the ARL stations' relative lack of escalators and elevators and the walking involved made carrying a lot of heavy luggage from an international flight very unwieldy, especially if I was traveling alone.

If I was arriving on a local/domestic flight with little or lighter luggage, I'd take the City Line because the fare was cheaper and the trains often were running more frequently than the Express Line -- even though my stopping destinations normally would have been either Makasan for for (for MRT) or Phyathai (for BTS)!

As is depressingly typical here, the authorities had the kernel of a good idea -- an express line transit service connecting the center of BKK with the international airport. And then, they proceeded to totally fail to execute it in a convenient, airport traveler friendly manner, by designing/building stations at Phyathai and Makasan that were/are pretty inhospitable to luggage toting airport travelers.

Then long after the fact, they began trying to apply band-aids -- building the LONG overhead walkway at Makasan connecting it to the Petchburi MRT station, awarding contracts to install more elevators and escalators, etc. But then along the way, they also managed to fail to maintain their own trains, and poof, the already poorly utilized Express Line is suspended.

For some urban planner or academic, the whole plan for the Airport Express service would make for a pretty amazing case study of how to take a good idea and totally XXXX up its implementation.

Edited March 23, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[natway09]

It's a pain in the arse to use if you have a decent size bag.

The SRT couldn't run anything anyway, certainly not at a profit.

It must be the most inefficient Government Department.ever on record.

Their main routes still do not have dual carriageways, & their rolling stock has been allowed to go to rack & ruin

so where have all the monies gone?,

Now, they cannot run even an airport shuttle properly, nor a decent train service, their freight services are still in the dark ages,

Why would they be trusted to run K Generals new toy "high speed trains" I'll take a cab or fly, thankyou

[Lancashirelad]

The City Line train sets have uncomfortable hard plastic inward facing seats and no luggage racks. The express trains had nice comfy upholstered seats and luggage racks, ideal for the job.

It was noticeable staff at the airport station always tried to make you use the city line train rather than wait around for the express.

[dbrenn]

The express airport link was a nice way to travel, but took you to a part of the city where nobody wants to go to.

Who wants to lug heavy bags around one of the most congested and difficult to get out of parts of the city?

Shame.