Representatives of the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand have announced a plan to reduce the MRT’s electricity usage by turning off its escalators during non-peak hours.
The proposed plan will turn off escalators leading to and from the MRT between 9:30am and 4:30pm. The service stoppages will begin on April 1 and continue through June 30.
Ms. Rachanee Tripipatkul, Committee Chairwoman of the MRTA, announced via the National News Bureau of Thailand that 70 to 80 of the MRT’s 200 escalators would be selected for service stoppages. She estimated that this initiative would save a large percentage of the MRT’s THB1 million daily electricity expenditures.
The MRT joins Bangkok’s malls in its attempts to save electricity during a natural gas shortage that will befall the Kingdom in April, owing to repairs on a natural gas pipeline in Burma.
