Bangkok
Sky-metro, subway under construction, monorail

Bangkok, known to natives as Krungthepmahanakorn Amornrattanakosin Mahintrayu thethaya Mahadilokpob Noparat Rajataniburirom Udomrajanivej Mahasatharn Amornpimarn Awatarnsatis Sakatadtiya Wisanukamprasit, or "City of Angels" for short, has two mass transit projects. There are also several defunct projects, one of which remains an elevated graveyard. No other city in this constitutional monarchy has a rapid transit system planned or under construction.




 
Photos courtesy Ron Morris

Bangkok Mass Transit Railway (BTS)

This is a 2 line, 23.5 kilometer elevated transit system (pictured above) referred to as the Skytrain, or rot fai fah . The Skytrain has 22 stations and many island platforms where the homeless sleep. Three extensions totaling 19.6 km have been approved.

Official Home Page
Ron Morris' excellent Skytrain page
Thorough Skytrain page from Piers R. Conner
Skytrain photo gallery from Norbert Pogrzeba
Metroplanet home page
Siemens site with map
The Dawn of Modern Rapid Transit in Bangkok from Futureframe, a technology web magazine

MRTA publicity photo

Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRT)

The subway is due to open April 13, 2004. Unofficial sources say the first 500 passengers will be given a complimentary Thai stick, an I Love Yul Brenner pin on button, a souvenir pack of Marlboros.

The initial line, a.k.a. the Blue Line, will have 18 stations along 21 underground km. Future extensions will be above and below ground. The Metro is known in Thai as Rot Fai Fah Mahanakhon. It will be operated by the Bangkok Metro Company.

Official Home Page of the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand
Official Home Page of the Bangkok Metro Company
Children's Day in the tunnels encourages a new kind of commerce
Sweet page from Ron Morris
Kawasaki Delivers Tunnel Boring Machines for Bangkok Subway Project
photo of a station
system map from Reynolds's excellent subway site
2001 photos of the subway


Monorail

A 1.6 km, 4 station monorail on Fashion Island runs between a shopping mall and an amusement park. In 2002, two young girls were killed in a monorail fire.


Photos courtesy Ron Morris

Bangkok Elevated Road and Train System (SRT) (a.k.a. BERTS a.k.a. the Hopewell Project a.k.a. the Hopeless Project)

This dead project was to cover 64.1 km, 2 lines, and 49 stations. Whether it was due to political infighting or a simple lack baht, there remains throughout Bangkok a mass-ive transit grave, with a demo train sitting in a junkyard in Conburi. The plan was to build an expressway for automobiles with commuter rail in the center (the SRT) and a light rail or metro running underneath the road. In April, 2003, SRT announced it "hoped" to create a kinder, gentler BERTS from the partially constructed system, with trackage that could run it's own metro or be leased by Skytrain.

Other dead projects that never got off the ground, so to speak, are the Lavalin  Skytrain, the Bangkok Land Skytrain, and the Klong Tramway.

Siemens site
Unofficial Site
Official BTS site
Cross section of the Hopewell project as it was to be

The Dawn of Rapid Transit in Bangkok