Eastern Corridor Airport Link

[Jun]

I'm sure large sections of it will be elevated. They seem to love infrastructure projects that pour vast amounts of concrete, far in excess of what is needed. There will probably be a few elevated stations, well in excess of what is needed. For an example, a photo of a small section of Khon Kaen station is below. The centre of it is off to the left of the photo and the construction extends far beyond this. This wasn't open when I arrived, but about 20 people got off at the temporary station. More than enough room for 20 people to disembark at the new station.

Where the Eastern Corridor link is likely to fall down is:
1 With poor interconnection to other public transport. The distance between connecting stations will be more than optimum and a tortuous connecting route will be made. Almost as if they are contracted per m of walkway.

2 Inconvenient stations

3 A service that does not meet original promises. If we take the airport rail system, the original fast trains from the airport seem to have been cancelled. They run slightly too infrequently, so can be crowded. Although, to be fair it's usually OK.

Incidentally, if we take the Khon Kaen case, of course a better rail service might increase passenger numbers slightly. They could even draw in passengers from around the region, except of course, the "new" bus station in Khon Kaen is outside the city ring road & nowhere near the station. It should be underneath that rail station.

[Dodger]

Unlike the High Speed Rail (HSR) project linking Thailand to China which is also in the final planning phase, this project has disclosed all of its project management plans to the public including the cost/benefit analysis, risk mitigation plans and stacks of documents covering all the complexities of this mega project. This level of detail is of course of little interest to most people but reassuring to know that the potential risk has been identified before the billions of baht start getting panned out.

Right now it's not possible to see the exact location of each HSR station. What we do know is that the project will include an exit link from Suvarnabhumi Airport, and access link to U-Tapao Airport, and an exit from U-Tapao Airport to Rayong. Its double standard-gauge (1.435 metres wide) track will extend 260 kilometers, covering the five provinces of Bangkok, Samut Prakan, Chachoengsao, Chon Buri and Rayong. Most parts of the railway structure will be elevated, with some ground-level sections and tunnels. There will be 10 HSR stations, of which eight will be elevated: Don Mueang Station, Bang Sue Grand Station, Makkasan Station, Chachoengsao Station, Chon Buri Station, Si Racha Station, Pattaya Station and Rayong Station. Suvarnabhumi and U-Tapao stations will be underground. Sorry, in my first posting I forgot to count U-Tapao and said there were only 9 stations.

Phase 3 of the U-Tapao expansion project is also planned to begin soon. This includes adding another terminal (currently there are two) and another runway. From what I read the capacity of U-Tapao when the project is completed will surpass that of Suvarnabhumi which is hard to imagine.

If these aren't enough mega projects to get your hands around there's also the ASEAN High Speed Rail Project linking Thailand with the rest of Southeast Asia.

Too many mega projects going on at one time for a country with limited experience with projects as large and complex as these. All have the potential to provide great economical benefits - but failure isn't in the budget.

[fountainhall]

poor interconnection to other public transport.

This was one reason why Makkasan as an airport terminal totally failed. The intention was that airlines would have check-in desks here and boarding passes issued. Only THAI and Bangkok Airways actually opened desks but some days there were only two dozen passengers checking in. Bangkok Airways gave up after 6 months. THAI carried on until the Airport Express Line was cancelled. One huge problem was the difficulty taxis had getting to Makkasan. At rush hours, many prospective passengers just gave up. Another was the hike passengers from the MRT had to make across roads and construction junk with their luggage. Makkasan was a disaster that could have easily been foreseen. But the planners had blindfolds as usual.

the original fast trains from the airport seem to have been cancelled

Yes they were cancelled 5 years ago! Not only were the trains breaking down too often, the planners had again had their blindfolds on. One Express train ran from the airport to Phaya Thai station (linked to the BTS) and took 18 minutes. But another Express only ran as far as Makkasan. The problem was there was no linkage on to the other Express line to then get passengers to Phaya Thai! Each ran only once an hour. After the Phaya Thai Line was suspended for a year to sort out lots of problems, only the Makkasan Line operated. But it often had only around 400 passengers per day!

Both lines were scrapped with massive losses to the operators.