Bkk -> City Train To Be Scrapped

[dantilley]

BUT; BKK's ''central'' station hardly suits anyone either! most known areas with lots of hotels are still a bus/taxi ride away from there, and taxis at HLPong are often MUCH harder to get to use their taxiMETER as at airport.

Doesn't really matter about those taxi drivers though as you can just catch the MRT from Hua Lamphong and then connect to most hotel areas, changing to the BTS if necessary.

[bkk_mike]

Many major airports in the world do have a rail link (London Heathrow has an underground/metro and 2 independent train services to Paddington - and there is as much walking to the station as it's to the taxi rank) as well as public buses.

Rail always will be faster and cheaper than taxi

Sure, where the taxis charge 80+ pounds. About a monthly salary of most of the workers and officers a traveler would see on their way from the plane to the street.

In BKK, the taxis are not for free, but a token price of 8$ for a 30km ride makes them no worry.

And a 24 minutes by a taxi from Ekkamai to the new airport (4 minutes longer than to the old one) does not justify any other mean of transportation unless it is a helicopter door-to-door for the same taxi price.

There are 3 reasons why people may choose a train rather than a taxi.

1. Like Hong Kong - the train is faster, and doesn't have the issues of negotiating the traffic on bridges... (and it takes you to virtually where you want to go... - i.e. Travelling to Hong Kong on business - the train took me to within 100 yards of the hotel, and 50 of the office...

2. Like Tokyo (and London) - taxis are ridiculously expensive.

3. The train is cheap (London surprisingly - if you use the Underground rather than the Heathrow Express) - because children (<11) are free, and it's less than a fiver to most of London (and again, you can often get within walking distance of your destination without having to get a taxi...).

In Bangkok, the infrastructure isn't there yet.... - the Skytrain (although you can see the extension being built from Saphan Thaksin), and the Metro don't cover enough of Bangkok to be useful for most people.

Add in that taxis are very cheap, and, so long as you know where you're going (as - witness Amazing Race Asia - the Bangkok taxi drivers almost certainly won't), the taxi is a better option than the train...

For people on a budget (like backpackers), the bus is going to be the cheapest option...

For people with luggage - take a taxi... (your only problem is, half the taxis in Bangkok seem to have compressed gas cylinders in the boot these days, so your luggage ends up on the seat next to you). And luggage is the killer for any mass-transit system... - Even in London, where it costs an arm and a leg, I've taken a taxi when travelling with the family and more luggage than we could comfortably take on the tube...

The only people I can see taking the train to/from the airport, are people who live on the train line itself (or on the MRT or BTS lines coming off it - and then only when travelling light...)

[guyfromeurope]

I hope that the construction of rail link between Suvarnabhumi & BKK downtown will not be abandoned.

Take the example of Vienna in Austria (or KL in Malaysia...) : you canb check in with all your bagages in downtown, then go for a walk, take the train and arrive in no hurry and without "struggle" to the airport.

Already Bangkok (and its airport) is traffic jammed, why not to split the check in areas betweeb the airport and downtown?

In Vienna & KL it's not just backpackers who use the train but every passanger who wants to be sure about catching his plane and dropping his suitcasesq the earlier possible.

This construction can be expensive it's true. But speaking about infrastructural projects, you have to use a longer time-line, a much wider stakeholder constituency and consider all the positive externalities as well.

The train, projected to carry 300,000 passengers a year (today's SkytTrain does about 420,000 passengers a year) has been reviewed and deemed as unrealistic. By the now government.

However, I would agree.

Who on earth would want to use it, dragging their bags down to it and then up again, probably catching a cab from their final station anyway? And all that after a 10-12-25 hours flight to the place where a taxi is priced at 8-10 US$ from the airport?

Just look how shamefully the Sydney's airport rail has bankrupted (or is connected to the life supporting machines)? The ticket there is (was) 12A$. Taxi would be 25A$. Any 2 budget watching people traveling together would opt for a taxi.

I understand that some, only some, not even all of the backpackers would consider it.