Not to mention there are 1st world countries with x times higher salaries and costs while similar or even lower public transport cost.

For example?

Lets make the BTS cheaper so everyone can use it, then make Rolls Royce cheaper so everyone can buy one.

Its only fair.

BTS is great you get to see all the lovely concrete that holds Bk together close up, a must see on all tourists visits a tour of the concrete jungle is a must

If you don't want to use the service, don't use it,

I use it all the time when I am in Bangkok, full, half or empty 

sometimes I will walk the distance I need to go, the service is there your choice to use what ever the cost is, you know before hand what the cost will be, 

 

 

Off topic posts and inflammatory posts and replies have been removed as well as the replies.  

8 hours ago, berybert said:

Lets make the BTS cheaper so everyone can use it, then make Rolls Royce cheaper so everyone can buy one.

Its only fair.

 

It's a public transport. It should be accessible to everyone.

 

The comparison to Rolls Royce really doesn't make any sense.

5 hours ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

 

It's a public transport. It should be accessible to everyone.

 

The comparison to Rolls Royce really doesn't make any sense.

Jumping on a train from London to Glasgow cost more than £100 that's public transport in a first world country, Some people cant afford it. There are things in life people cant afford.

Maybe I am mistaken but not all Stations would be able to accomodate trains longer than 5 cars let alone 6. So what would be the point? The BTS is still the best way to get around Bangkok given the huge increase in cars now on the roads thanks to the lovely Yingluck and her first time car buyer program. Granted the trains are even more packed but at peak hours you only have a short time before the next one comes along. The price is certainly cheap and anything that can keep me out of a taxi is going to get my business. If they can add trains perhaps they would stagger the schedules and the stations that they could stop at. They could also announce that the oncoming train is four car, five car, or six car train and people could plan accordingly. Confusing perhaps at first but people would soon adjust.

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Most of us are retired. However if I was working then the very first thing I would check out is public transport in bangkok and how I would get to work
 
Peak hour madness on the bts would have been observed.
 

Most of us....?!
Aha!

Pray tell how you would avoid "peak hour madness" in Bangkok!
I am all ears to your wisdom!


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On Saturday, April 01, 2017 at 4:41 PM, tonray said:

The Thonburi side was populated before the other side,in fact it is the side where the original city of Bangkok began

Thanks for this insightful lecture- as if I didn't know!

So...care to tell me, why Saphan Taksin was deemed to be a terminal- station?

 

Paris and Montréal occasional ticket bus and Subway combined cost 70B, systems far superior to what Bangkok has to offer, plus daily, weekly, monthly, senior and student tarifs. Bangkok has only a user unfriendly system.


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17 hours ago, mogandave said:

I'm not clear what average salary has to do with the the cost of a BTS ticket. The cost of the ticket should at minimum cover the cost of operations.
......

 

14 hours ago, berybert said:

Lets make the BTS cheaper so everyone can use it, then make Rolls Royce cheaper so everyone can buy one.

Its only fair.

That's not how local public transportation works.  The true cost is largely subsidized by gov't because there is more good that comes out of making it affordable for masses.  

• Workers can get to/from their plantations, supermarkets, etc
• common destinations are readily accessible
• there is much less congestion on the roads/nearby paths shared by public transport
• create hubs so that onward travel is accessible or affordable
• you can now scale up to larger projects
• tourism gets a boost when the other bullet points are considered.

Public transportation more of a loss leader to encourage the population to help contribute their ideas in the form of labor, street vendors, shops, malls, services, etc that synergistically make that city more pleasant to live in and scale up human capital.

53 minutes ago, 4evermaat said:

 

That's not how local public transportation works.  The true cost is largely subsidized by gov't because there is more good that comes out of making it affordable for masses.  

• Workers can get to/from their plantations, supermarkets, etc
• common destinations are readily accessible
• there is much less congestion on the roads/nearby paths shared by public transport
• create hubs so that onward travel is accessible or affordable
• you can now scale up to larger projects
• tourism gets a boost when the other bullet points are considered.

Public transportation more of a loss leader to encourage the population to help contribute their ideas in the form of labor, street vendors, shops, malls, services, etc that synergistically make that city more pleasant to live in and scale up human capital.

If you want to make it affordable to the masses you have to accept it will be crowded and service cant be good.

Why not make it free and have 7 million Bangkokians use it several times a day.

There are public buses for those who cant afford the train.

On 3/31/2017 at 9:31 PM, Eligius said:

The BTS used to be very good when it first started - but nowadays you are lucky to get a seat, as it is always so crowded, even in 'off-peak' hours. They simply don't lay on enough rolling stock. More trains are desperately needed.

absolutely agree. I first went to thailand back in 2004.  Later when I started using the BTS it was great.  Cheap and easy way to get around an awful lot of bangkok.  I enjoyed looking out the window.  I even used the link to the airport once which was OK. The last few trips, wow.  Crowded all the time. 

absolutely agree. I first went to thailand back in 2004.  Later when I started using the BTS it was great.  Cheap and easy way to get around an awful lot of bangkok.  I enjoyed looking out the window.  I even used the link to the airport once which was OK. The last few trips, wow.  Crowded all the time. 

So you would have prefered the service to have been unsuccessful? If you think it's crowded now, wait until it's fully extended! The BTS is one Bangkok's most impressive successes.

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18 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

So you would have prefered the service to have been unsuccessful? If you think it's crowded now, wait until it's fully extended! The BTS is one Bangkok's most impressive successes.

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Do you even know how to read with comprehension?  I never said I preferred the service to have been unsuccessful.  Goodness.  I wrote that I thought the BTS was great.

Do you even know how to read with comprehension?  I never said I preferred the service to have been unsuccessful.  Goodness.  I wrote that I thought the BTS was great.

Sorry. I took your post to mean "great" in the past, but not so now, due to the crowding caused by its success.

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BTS may not be perfect but it's one of the finest, if not THE finest, examples of well-run operations in the Kingdom.  It's proof that Thais are indeed capable of applying thought, logic, good planning, and maintenance, resulting in safe, dependable, convenient, timely service day after day, year after year.  Sure there are some niggles such as change machines being too persnickety accepting coins and the entrance/exit gate machines not always working 100%, especially during manic rush-hour periods, but considering the number of daily travelers these days the BTS system is incredibly reliable overall and very cheap compared to taxis.

 

I just returned to Isaan from a trip to Bangkok a couple of days ago.  The area I was in, SW of Don Mueang airport on Samakkhi Rd, between Nonthaburi and Pak Kret was a complete nightmare getting around because it's so far from the BTS.  It typically took more than an hour by taxi to get from Samakkhi Rd to Mo-Chit BTS station and 3 hours trying to use public transportation.  First, we took a song-tao to get to a city bus route.  We then jumped on a bus but hadn't gone far when the main road became a parking lot due to road construction ahead.  We finally got off the bus and walked 2-3km until past the congestion then took a taxi to Mo-Chit.  It was so late by then we nixed the idea of going shopping at MBK and along Sukhumvit Rd.  My point is the BTS is wonderful if you're able to utilize it.  Getting around Bangkok can be a freakin' nightmare otherwise.  Yeah, the BTS prices keep going up and are much more expensive than in the past, but considering that the ongoing BTS expansion ain't free, I'll happily cough up the extra coins.  Can't wait until BTS expansion to Don Mueang is finally completed.

On 04/01/2017 at 3:32 PM, siam2007 said:

 

In other cities/countries such as Singapore, KL, Hong Kong, Manila, everyone can afford to use the MRT system, not just white collar workers. Whether the BTS could handle all of them, is another story

On  vacation in Taiwan recently, I noticed that their subway system was a lot cheaper than BTS. Starbucks coffee was about the same price?. Also where is station S4, Suksa Witthaya, that BTS told their shareholders they would complete by early next year? No start on works yet. They have charged an extra 5 Baht for this "ghost station" for the padt 17 years.

On  vacation in Taiwan recently, I noticed that their subway system was a lot cheaper than BTS. Starbucks coffee was about the same price[emoji4]. Also where is station S4, Suksa Witthaya, that BTS told their shareholders they would complete by early next year? No start on works yet. They have charged an extra 5 Baht for this "ghost station" for the padt 17 years.

How much is a one-day pass on the Taiwan Metro?