Express train route cut short

09 Apr 2014  2039 | Business & Trade Fairs

Airport Rail Link will end its Express Line service temporarily from Phaya Thai station to Suvanabhumi Airport, effective 14 April for at least a year due to the need to repair trains.
Airport Rail Link’s chief executive officer, Peerakan Kaewwongwattana, said work on express trains will not be finished until April 2015.
“We have to service one train at a time and that will take two months for each train,” he said. “We have to adjust service and the solution is to end the express train service at Phaya Thai station.”
However, the move does not have an impact on the popular City Line that still provides services through to Phaya Thai.
City Line and Express trains were introduced at the same time raising the question why the Express trains need to be withdrawn for serious maintenance, while all City Line trains remain in service.
The argument does not sound feasible. It is more likely linked to financial losses incurred on the Express trains as very few airport passengers bother to use the service.
The Express train service, which is nonstop to Makkasan and then continues to Phya Thai the last station on the line, has never been popular with travellers. The wait between express train departures is longer than the travelling time of the City Line trains that stop at every station.
Airport Rail Link operates roundtrip express and commuter services from the city centre to Suvarnabhumi airport. The Express service takes just 15 minutes from Makkasan to the airport and was designed to serve passengers who had checked in their luggage at airline counters at the station. No more than a handful of passengers use the service.
THAI Airways International has maintained a check-in at Makkasan Station for the last two years and serves on average 15 passengers a day. On some days there is not a single passenger.
The check-in counters were opened at Makkasan station 4 January 2011 and for a short while both THAI and Bangkok Airways offered a full check-in service including baggage handling.
Privately owned Bangkok Airways closed the service after six months claiming there were too few passengers to justify staff and operational costs.
THAI, which is government owned, has maintained a token presence using the station’s counters 16 to 20 from 0700 to 2100.
This service is available only for passengers with confirmed tickets on THAI domestic or international flights. They need to purchase an Express Line ticket before checking in at the counter. As there are only hourly Express services to the airport as opposed to the 20 to 30-minute gaps between city line services, most passengers opt for the cheaper more frequent service.

Sourced: ttrweekly

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