Will BKK and Pattaya connect into a single metropolitan area?

[Hal65]

Interesting article on Quartz today about the rise of megacities: http://qz.com/666153/megacities-not-nations-are-the-worlds-most-dominant-enduring-social-structures-adapted-from-connectography/

Apparently they'll explode in number by 2025.

I came from a part of the US that was mostly fruit trees 20 to 30 years ago. It has since grown incredibly to become one of the biggest metropolitan areas of the US. I know China and other parts of Asia are following the same trend.

How about Thailand? The most obvious place for a large metropolitan/mega-city connection to me would seem to be the space in between Bangkok and Pattaya.

I know very little about this in between area though. Do you guys think it will experience big growth in the near future? Or is the area too inhospitable or doomed for some other reason?

[KittenKong]

If you drive from Pattaya to Bangkok along Sukumvit you wont find many places where there isnt some some sort of town/village/building/shop/house/construction on the side of the road, so in one sense you could say that it's already happened.

I think it will take a lot more than 10 years for every linear foot to be built on though, and even then a few 10s of yards back from the main road it will probably still be open fields.

[SidJames]

BKK to Rayong all along the coast

[does]

Bangkok-Rayong is now what Marseilles-Monte Carlo was 50 years ago?

[mike324]

Connect into a single metropolitan area? Maybe it will take another 30 years? There is still so much land in surrouding Bangkok areas, expanding to the land in between Bangkok and Pattaya is not at the top of the list of any developers. Plus the area between is known mostly as industrial areas with factories, so not one of the first places developers would expand too.

Also taking into consideration the population of people living in between Bangkok and Pattaya, developers would rather focus on other cities in provinces surrounding Bangkok first. So perhaps in another 30 years it could be a single metropolitan area.

If the government plan high speed train stops in between Bangkok and Pattaya, we would see an accelerate growth, but without that nobody would want to move in between the two cities. There is simply nothing there.

[ozyjon]

Will BKK and Pattaya connect into a single metropolitan area?

Re-phrase it a bit better,,,

Will Bangkok be part of The Gulf of Thailand

[Minnehaha]

Bkk will never extend to Pattaya. Not in a few hundred years.

The direction will be up and down in downtown. And at the GDP per capita rate now with its growth rate, it will be no change vis a vis the rest of the world. Thailand will always be a newly (almost) developed country.

And it will always be a 1st world country for the super wealthy. And even for the almost wealthy. But the poor will remain a majority forever.

[dirtycash]

what happened to the super epxress train connecting bkk to pattaya ? plans binned allready ?

[NanLaew]

Connect into a single metropolitan area? Maybe it will take another 30 years? There is still so much land in surrouding Bangkok areas, expanding to the land in between Bangkok and Pattaya is not at the top of the list of any developers. Plus the area between is known mostly as industrial areas with factories, so not one of the first places developers would expand too.

Also taking into consideration the population of people living in between Bangkok and Pattaya, developers would rather focus on other cities in provinces surrounding Bangkok first. So perhaps in another 30 years it could be a single metropolitan area.

If the government plan high speed train stops in between Bangkok and Pattaya, we would see an accelerate growth, but without that nobody would want to move in between the two cities. There is simply nothing there.

Thirty years at current rates of expansion would be about right. I was amazed at the huge tracts of land being cleared to the west of Highway 331 at the 3138 (Rayong) junction. All this within the space of a few weeks. Admittedly this will probably be prime industrial estate land but these factories that litter the inner parts of the Eastern seaboard need huge amounts of cheap housing for the workers. I recall maybe 8 or 10 years ago when Bowin changed from bugger all to a sprawling commercial/residential hub just north of the Ammata City Industrial Estate. That's only a tad over 20 km from Naklua as the crow flies.

[mike324]

what happened to the super epxress train connecting bkk to pattaya ? plans binned allready ?

still in the talks... they can't work out who is going to pay for what yet, I believe it will happen just a matter of when...

[tropo]

If you drive from Pattaya to Bangkok along Sukumvit you wont find many places where there isnt some some sort of town/village/building/shop/house/construction on the side of the road, so in one sense you could say that it's already happened.

I think it will take a lot more than 10 years for every linear foot to be built on though, and even then a few 10s of yards back from the main road it will probably still be open fields.

A lot of people aren't aware of it driving along the main roads in Pattaya, but there's quite a bit of open field right in the heart of Pattaya if you look around. It's probably because the owners are holding out for big prices, which they are sure to come by if they're patient. In Cosy Beach, just a stone's throw from Walking Street, I estimate (from looking at a Google Map image) that about 25% of the area is still undeveloped.