Rail expansions expect green light

[elef]

Bangkok Post

September 25, 2006

Link

 

Rail expansions expect green light

Interim government should give go-ahead

 

AMORNRAT MAHITTHIROOK CHAROEN KITTIKANYA

 

Authorities remain confident that extensions to Bangkok's mass-transit routes will go ahead under the interim government that is expected to be formed soon.

 

 

Subway line expansion and new railway tracks were approved last month by the caretaker cabinet of Thaksin Shinawatra before his ouster in a military coup last week.

 

 

"The coup is unlikely to affect the extension projects, since they have already won approval from all parties, who agreed on their necessity to address Bangkok's chronic traffic problem and save energy," said Anchalee Chavanit, the chairwoman of the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA).

 

 

"Thus, anyone leading the government is expected to agree on this necessity and speed this up."

 

The projects are the 40-kilometre Red Line from Phaya Thai to Rangsit and Chiang Rak Noi near Thammasat University's Rangsit campus in Pathum Thani; the 23-km Purple Line from Bang Yai in Nonthaburi to Bang Sue; and extensions to the Blue Line or present subway lines, by 14 km from Hua Lamphong to Bang Kae, and by 13 km from Bang Sue to Tha Phra on the Thon Buri side of the river.

 

 

The Red Line, which is under construction, will connect to Suvarnabhumi Airport.

 

 

The MRTA will take charge of the extensions to the current subway lines and the Purple Line, while the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) will be responsible for the Red Line.

 

 

The Blue and Purple lines require a combined investment of 103.13 billion baht and the Red Line needs 40 billion baht.

 

 

Construction of the new routes is scheduled to start in April next year and to be completed within three or four years. The SRT and the MRTA had planned to release the bidding terms on Oct 13 and accept tenders from Dec 20-29.

 

 

Ms Anchalee said the date for the terms would probably be postponed, but expected the picture to clear up over the next two weeks.

 

 

Talks with the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) _ the potential financier for the deal _ would also continue as planned, she said.

 

 

The Chachoengsao-Laem Chabang double-track rail route was another important project that needed the go-ahead to improve the country's logistics and transport efficiency, added Ms Anchalee, who is also an SRT director.

 

 

SRT management is now drafting the terms of reference for the 87-km project that requires an investment of about 5.23 billion baht.

 

 

The cabinet had already endorsed the project. Bidding was expected to be called in November or December, with construction taking about 30 months starting from late this year.

 

 

Any delays to new mass transit routes could affect the German engineering giant Siemens, which has supplied all of the rolling stock to both the BTS skytrain and the MRTA subway.

 

 

A Siemens executive said the company had high hopes that it would win the contracts to supply electric trains and operating systems for the new routes. The bidding process has been delayed several times since the beginning of this year.

 

 

The company won an 11.1-billion-baht deal to supply trains and operating systems for the Airport Link connecting Makkasan in Bangkok to Suvarnabhumi Airport early last year.

 

 

It was also close to signing a 1.4-billion-baht deal with the subway operator Bangkok Metro Plc to supply five new trains due for delivery in 2009.

 

 

For the 2005 fiscal year ending on Sept 30, Siemens reported total sales of 14 billion baht in Thailand, with sales from transport systems contributing 2.46 billion baht.

 

 

The company secured 31.7 billion baht worth of new business orders last year, with transport accounting for the highest proportion at 12.23 billion baht, mainly from the airport rail link and a BTS maintenance contract.

 

 

[adawes]

The Skytrain would never have been extended, had Thaksin remained in power, for political reasons.

 

As it is, they could probably lay the tracks across the river bridge, from Saphan Taksin, overnight. However, I don't know the status of any of the stations on the western side of the Chao Phraya.

 

http://www.2bangkok.com/ has lots more details on all of this.

[cavanami]

errrr, they already had started at On Nut to extend the BTS south, way before Taksin went to the UK.

 

The plan was also to extend the BTS, north to Ayutthaya and later, far south to Pattaya.

[adawes]

"The government has delayed Skytrain extension plans since 2001. The present TRT-dominated government had long prevented the Skytrain from expanding its lines. This was essentially because the Skytrain company is owned by allies of the rival Democrat Party."

 

http://www.2bangkok.com/2bangkok/Skytrain/taksin.shtml

 

http://www.2bangkok.com/2bangkok/Skytrain/index.shtml