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The Nation -
URBANITE
Bad planning delays Skytrain expansion
Is anyone really paying attention to the Skytrain expansion plans?
Published on March 25, 2008

Looking beyond the monthly announcements as to which lines may actually be built and the corruption scandals anticipated, it is time to examine what they actually plan to construct.

I recently headed over to Thonburi to inspect the 2.2-kilometre expansion across the Chao Phya River, which began 18 months ago.

The superstructure for the tracks and stations has been in place since the Skytrain started operating nine years ago. All that was required was to add the station platforms and lay down the tracks to Sapan Taksin station. It was supposed to be completed within a year and although the structures are pretty much finished now, passengers have to wait at least another year for the installation of a few electronic signalling devices.

An officer responsible for mass transit at the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) last week said that the city has just selected the signalling contractor - something that should have been done at the outset.

When operations do get underway, the existing Sapan Taksin station, from which the extension to Thonburi begins, will join the Suvarnabhumi Airport as another of Bangkok's civil engineering blunders.

Since this station will no longer function as a terminus, trains now need to pass through the station from both directions, but it has only one track.

Common sense tells us that the whole purpose of double tracks is so that we can efficiently move trains and minimise the potential for accidents.

It is absolutely unheard of to have a single track in a heavily used urban transit line, unless it is for emergency or maintenance purposes.

The station platform cannot be widened to accommodate a second track, as it would extend over the adjacent roadway and into the path of vehicles.

Next I will head over to On Nut and see what problems are brewing at that extension, where less than 50 per cent of the structure has been completed after 15 months of construction.