Pattaya City unveils plans for nine-kilometre monorail

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Re: Pattaya City unveils plans for nine-kilometre monorail

Post by Gaybutton »

Still nothing being said about any stops planned for Jomtien. To me it would make good sense to establish a large car park outside the city, have a monorail stop there, and include stops along Jomtien Beach. That would solve a great many traffic problems. Every time there is a holiday, there is so much traffic trying to come in to Pattaya that it becomes a total gridlock. And it's just as bad when they all are trying to return home. Instead of having an enjoyable day at the beach, hundreds, perhaps thousands, get stuck in traffic and end up spending the day stuck in traffic. Even if they make it to the beach, now unless they're really lucky they won't find anywhere to park.

It also makes life difficult for locals. Over the years here, I've learned on holidays if I want to go anywhere or do anything, I better do it very early or very late. But definitely not during the day. With that amount of traffic, and the vehicles driven by frustrated and angered people, I won't even walk down the street, let alone try to drive anywhere.

In my opinion, large parking facilities with monorail stops outside the city, and stops along Jomtien Beach make far more sense than worrying about stops at shopping malls. On holidays most of the incoming traffic is from Bangkok. Aren't there a few shopping malls in Bangkok? What do they need with shopping malls in Pattaya? That's not why they come. How many of those cars are filled with people fighting traffic and driving for at least 2 hours just trying to get to Pattaya are doing that so they can go shopping at a mall? WRONG! They come to go to the beach. So, powers-that-be, if you're really going to finally build the monorail, include stops where they are truly useful. And have the system run 24 hours a day, every day too.
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Environmental assessment for planned Pattaya Monorail project expected to be completed in September

By Adam Judd

Friday, 26 June 2020

An EIA study (Environment Impact Assessment) for the long planned Pattaya monorail project is expected to be completed in September of this year.

The Pattaya City Mayor Sonthaya Khunpluem told The Pattaya News earlier this week that “The Pattaya monorail project is part of the overall Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) work.”

“The EEC development projects are designed to improve the overall infrastructure in the Eastern part of Thailand and involve multiple individual projects.”

“Discussions are part of the EIA study for the Pattaya monorail project. We have completed two public hearings previously.”

“The third discussion took place earlier this week for ideas from ‘Feeders’ which means other transportation hubs such as bus stations and railway stations as well as tourist attractions like Walking Street or Terminal 21 being connected to and feeding to the monorail project.”

“All EIA studies for the Pattaya monorail project is expected to be completed this September. Further information on the project and construction will be released to the public through hearings at that time.” The Mayor concluded.

https://thepattayanews.com/2020/06/26/e ... september/
Jun

Re: Pattaya City unveils plans for nine-kilometre monorail

Post by Jun »

Gaybutton wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:11 pm Still nothing being said about any stops planned for Jomtien. To me it would make good sense to establish a large car park outside the city, have a monorail stop there, and include stops along Jomtien Beach. That would solve a great many traffic problems.
Yes, colocate a large car park next to the main road, a high speed rail station and a link to the monorail.
Also, the monorail ought to eventually be part of a proper network, which should probably include 2~3 lines so that it's a reasonable alternative to road transport. Finally, once there is a reasonable alternative, charge cars for driving into Central Pattaya. So you end up with a faster transport system and less pollution.

In practice, I expect all they are thinking about is who makes money during the construction phase, with very little thought given to providing an efficient service afterwards.
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Re: Pattaya City unveils plans for nine-kilometre monorail

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:47 pm charge cars for driving into Central Pattaya.
How would that be done? Where would the boundaries be? What about people who live, have businesses in Central Pattaya, or work there?

Would it be only for cars or would motorbikes also be charged? What about delivery trucks, tour buses, people shopping and carrying heavy loads, etc?

That just doesn't seem practical to me. I don't foresee that ever happening. The closest possibility I see would be people voluntarily opting for using the monorail if the stops are in the right places. As it stands presently, the only people going into Central Pattaya without cars are using motorbike taxis and baht buses - or walking . . .
Jun

Re: Pattaya City unveils plans for nine-kilometre monorail

Post by Jun »

I think the first example of road charging was in Singapore, in 1975. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_pricing#Singapore
That's done electronically. It's been around so long, I first heard about it in a Geography lesson at school.

There are loads of cities with such schemes. The technical capability to do it is proven. The benefits are reasonably clear, as you move traffic to public transport, reduce pollution and actually make car journeys faster for people who are prepared to pay.

If I were running Pattaya, I would start by charging ALL 4 wheeled vehicles, with the exception of the new buses that I would introduce to replace most of the baht buses.
Obviously all of the vehicles would need to be registered so that the money can be debited from bank accounts, so a certain amount of enforcement would be needed.

Central London has such a scheme. There is a huge difference in road traffic levels between the London financial district and, for example Silom. Silom is at almost gridlock at the end of the working day, whilst the roads in the City of London are surprisingly quiet.

Now if Singapore could do it 45 years ago, it follows that it can be done in Thailand right now, if the political will exists.

Also, if done properly, with improved public transport, I think you would be surprised how well you like the result. When you just want to go to a bar, restaurant or small shop, hop on the bus or metro and get into town quickly. When you have to carry something larger, you pay the 100 baht*, but again benefit from much less traffic than normal. Also, it's one of the essential steps to fix air pollution.

[*100 baht is an example. The charge needs to be set at a level which discourages wasteful use of vehicles, but allows essential business activity to proceed at reasonable cost.]
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Re: Pattaya City unveils plans for nine-kilometre monorail

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 10:56 pm There are loads of cities with such schemes.
I certainly agree with what you are saying, but I just don't see anything like that happening in Pattaya, Bangkok, or any other Thailand city - at least not in the foreseeable future. For the time being I'm pinning my traffic relief hopes on the monorail - if we actually live long enough to see it . . .

The only chance I see for your idea to even be considered is the difference those of us who live in Pattaya are seeing with no tour buses and greatly reduced traffic. Once all the restrictions are lifted and tourism returns to the way it was before the virus struck, perhaps the powers-that-be will get serious and do much more than relying only on the monorail. But I'm not holding my breath.
Jun

Re: Pattaya City unveils plans for nine-kilometre monorail

Post by Jun »

Gaybutton wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 6:36 am I certainly agree with what you are saying, but I just don't see anything like that happening in Pattaya, Bangkok, or any other Thailand city - at least not in the foreseeable future. For the time being I'm pinning my traffic relief hopes on the monorail - if we actually live long enough to see it . . .
I agree with you that we're unlikely to see any sensible traffic congestion measures in Thailand in the foreseeable future. It needs a complete change of regime and attitude. I don't even have a great deal of hope regarding the related topic of pollution reduction.

As for the monorail reducing traffic, or more likely giving us a reasonable alternative to avoid the traffic, I only see it being helpful if they have a proper network. If that's the plan, then the outline of the whole network should be designed before they even start work on the first line.
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Re: Pattaya City unveils plans for nine-kilometre monorail

Post by gerefan »

Has the Skytrain reduced road traffic is central Bangkok?

Will a simple monorail reduce road traffic in Pattaya?
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Re: Pattaya City unveils plans for nine-kilometre monorail

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gerefan wrote: Sun Jun 28, 2020 1:03 am Will a simple monorail reduce road traffic in Pattaya?
There is only one way to find out.

In Pattaya the infamous Sukhumvit tunnel was supposed to reduce traffic. I have not noticed any difference at all, not even a little bit - and I am convinced that is because they built it in the wrong place. It should have been at the Sukhumvit-Pattaya Tai intersection or the Sukhumvit-Theprasit intersection - or both.

My crystal ball tells me if they put the monorail stops at the right places, charge a fee Thais are willing to pay - or better still, free, provide good parking access, and run it 24/7 without long waiting periods for the next set of cars, then it will reduce traffic. Whether it will be a significant reduction remains to be seen. They also need to provide escalators to get up to and down from the stations. I, for one, am not going to be climbing flights of stairs to get to the monorail. My mountain climbing days are over.
Jun

Re: Pattaya City unveils plans for nine-kilometre monorail

Post by Jun »

gerefan wrote: Sun Jun 28, 2020 1:03 am Has the Skytrain reduced road traffic is central Bangkok?

Will a simple monorail reduce road traffic in Pattaya?
1 Whether or not the Skytrain has reduced traffic in Central Bangkok, it has provided a perfectly reasonable alternative to getting stuck in the traffic. We know we can complete certain journeys without getting stuck in traffic.

2 It probably has reduced congestion, compared with where we would now be without it, since all the people who use it would have to travel by road if it did not exist.

3 They probably could get many more people off the roads onto public transport in Bangkok by adopting a few simple measures:
(i) Running longer trains on the Skytrain to increase capacity & increasing train frequency.
(ii) Making it easier to use. e.g. Having a common ticketing system & improving the design of the interconnections to reduce transfer time between lines. Also, in busy locations like Sala Daeng, they should widen the pavement to make it easier to walk to and from the station. The road has 3 wide lanes, yet in places the pavement is over 1m wide.
(iii) Introducing a congestion charge for road vehicles.

As for a monorail in Pattaya, well a sensibly designed network with competitive prices should take traffic off the road. I haven't yet seen a sensibly designed network, just one line that doesn't even go to Jomtien and doesn't appear to link up with the high speed rail system.

I get the impression that the transport planners in Thailand have neither seen nor used on a decent public transport system. To fix that, just send them to Japan for a couple of weeks & insist they only use public transport.
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Re: Pattaya City unveils plans for nine-kilometre monorail

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Sun Jun 28, 2020 2:49 pm just one line that doesn't even go to Jomtien and doesn't appear to link up with the high speed rail system.
This latest article addresses that, although not any time soon.

For some of us, when those links are finally operational,

"The trouble is, we'll all be dead."
- Ronald Fraser (Sgt. Watson), 'The Flight of the Phoenix' -1965

The article also mentions parking structures. Three guesses whether those structures will be adequate to handle the number of cars, especially during holidays and whether their locations, entry, and exit procedures will cause, rather than alleviate, more traffic problems.

Oh well, don't worry too much. The way things are going, by the time Thailand finally decides to allow farang holiday makers to return, the entire system will probably already be built, operational - and obsolete . . .
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Pattaya monorail debut set for 2026

By Pattaya Mail

July 19, 2020

Proposed a decade ago, Pattaya’s monorail won’t be ready for passengers until at least 2026, according to its updated feasibility study.

Deputy City Manager Sutham Petchket chaired a July 17 city hall meeting to review progress on the 70-million-baht feasibility study for the Pattaya rail-transit plan with regional government officials, public-utility representatives, and the study’s project director Pongtawee Lertpanyawit.

Pongtawee said the study is now 80 percent complete, but still must incorporate findings from analysis of major factors including topology, road conditions, routes, land expropriations, environmental effects and investment budgets. The major outline and schedule for the project, however, is now done.

The monorail – the preferred choice from the original options of a ground-based tram and underground subway – would sit 18 meters above street level with tracks supported by steel-reinforced concrete pillars 1.8 meters wide, requiring minimal land underneath.

The feasibility study calls for development of the Green Line from 2022-2026. It would cost 16 baht for the first kilometer and 2.8 baht for each subsequent kilometer with the cost riding the entire route capped at 45 baht.

The first section of the train system, designated the Green Line, would run a nine-kilometer route from the Pattaya train station, along Highway 7 to North Road and on to Second Road, then turn off of Thappraya Road and terminate at Bali Hai Pier.

Later, extensions would see additional routes running into Jomtien Beach and East Pattaya.

The initial cost estimate for the Green Line is 20.8 billion baht including parking structures and a 40-rai station and shopping mall.

The study said the second phase, called the Purple Line, would be built between 2027 and 2031, running from Nongprue Subdistrict to a Green Line connecting station at Pattaya School No. 8 on South Road.

The Red Line, serving Jomtien Beach, would be built from 2032-36 going from the Eastern National Indoor National Sports Stadium on Soi Chaiyapruek 2 along Jomtien Second Road to Pattaya Second Road and terminating at the Dolphin Roundabout.

https://www.pattayamail.com/featured/pa ... 026-307933
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