Tuesday, September 16, 2008

My Public Transport Mode of Choice - The BTS Skytrain

My Public Transport Mode of Choice - The BTS Skytrain
bangkok ’s BTS sky train is a relatively fast and reliable way to make your way around town and to avoid the chaotic, traffic plagued roads below. As of now there are two sky train lines:




The Sukhumvit line has 16 stops and connects On Nut with Mo Chit, with en-route stops including Siam and Asoke (Sukhumvit). The Silom line has 7 stops and connects Sapan Taksin with National Stadium and its en-route stops include Silom aka Sala Daeng and Siam. The two lines connect at Siam.

bts Skytrain

The BTS Skytrain connects with its MRT Underground counterpart at Sala Daeng (Silom Underground), Asoke (Sukhumvit Underground) and Mo Chit (Chatuchak Underground). Most of my journeys on the BTS are between On Nut, Siam and Chong Nonsi where I get off and walk a bit further to my office.

The Skytrain fares are cheap starting from 15 baht to 40 baht which is still pretty much next to nothing. Tickets can be purchased from machines located at the stations. Unlike the MRT Underground ticket machines, a lot of machines for BTS tickets still only accept coins, not banknotes so you might have to change your note for coins at one of the information desks.

Back to the ticket machine, choose the zone your destination is in and it will automatically calculate the correct fare for you. You’ll be provided with a small cardboard ticket, roughly the size of a standard credit card to be inserted into a turnstile to access the platforms. Comes the end of your journey, you do the same to exit the platform but this time around it’s not returned to you.

Trains run from 6am morning to 12pm at night, are very frequently packed but thankfully are air conditioned. All upcoming stops are announced in both Thai and English.

If you live and work in bangkok and are tired of the shitty traffic here, I’d highly recommend adopting the BTS Skytrain as your primary mode of public transport.

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