Commuters can now glide all the way across the Bangkok Metropolitan Region’s southeast and north on a single ride of the BTS Skytrain – as well as reach a high-end riverside shopping mall.
Seven new stations on the BTS Green Line will come online at 1pm today, once extending again the system’s northern reach to now end at BTS Khu Khot in Pathum Thani province rather than BTS Wat Phra Si Mahathat in Bangkok.
The skytrain now covers 68 kilometers altogether, with the Green Line stretching from Pathum Thani to Samut Prakan province in the southeast.
Over on the Thonburi side of the mighty Chao Phraya River today opens the Gold Line. Originally intended to open with the IconSiam shopping mall – it was delayed several years – the new line will begin operating this afternoon with three stations: Thonburi, Charoen Nakhon and Khlong San.
Though marketed as a monorail, it is actually a PeopleMover, which is fully automated and almost as cool. The cars are Chinese-made Bombardier Innovia APM 300s with a maximum cruising speed of 80kph.
Until Jan. 16, there’s no fare to ride the initial 1.8 kilometer span which connects on one end to the BTS Silom Line at Krung Thon Buri. After that, it will cost THB15 per ride. A fourth station at Prajadhipok is expected to come online in the next few years, linking it to a future southern extension of the MRT Purple Line.
Though criticized as an off-master plan gift to developer Siam Piwat’s Iconsiam shopping mall, the developer underwrote its estimated THB3.8 billion cost.
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