Bangkok Metropolitan Administration held the first public hearing on its electric railway extension from Bang Wa to Taling Chan on Tuesday. The new link is expected to come into service in 2020. (File photo by Pornprom Satrabhaya)
Team Consulting Engineering and Management Co, a consultant BMA hired to study the project, introduced the three options at a public forum in Bangkok on Tuesday. About 100 people living near potential construction sites attended the meeting.
The first route of about 7-8km and with six stations starts at a depot in Bang Wa area and run north on Ratchaphruek Road. It passes intersections with Charan Sanitwong 13 and Phran Nok-Phutthamonthon Sai 4 roads, crosses Boromratchonnanee and Kanchanaphisek roads and joins the Red Line (Bang Sue-Taling Chan) and the Orange Line (Min Buri-Taling Chan).
The second potential route runs in the same direction — from Bang Wa to Phran Nok-Phutthamonthon Sai 4 Road, where it turns left and heads west. It then turns right to Phutthamonthon Sai 1 Road to pass Boromratchonnanee Road and Suan Phak Road and reaches the end of Suan Phak Road, where it joins the extended section of the Red Line (Taling Chan-Salaya). There will be eight stations on the 10km route.
The third choice is similar to the first one — from Bang Wa to Boromratchonnanee Road. But after it crosses Boromratchonnanee, it goes west through Taling Chan beforing turning to Ratchaphruek Road. The route will be 7-8km long with six stations.
Tharit Issarayangyun, an engineer of Team Consulting, said that the third choice would serve the most people but, unlike the other two options, it calls for land expropriation.
People attending the hearing supported the extension project and asked authorities to come up with the most cost-effective route.
The BMA paid the consultant 40 million baht last December to study the routes. The study and design of the link should be concluded within next year. An environmental impact assessment study should be finished in 2017 and construction may begin in 2019.
The 10-billion-baht extension is scheduled to begin service in 2020.
Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/transport/487754/three-routes-proposed-for-skytrain-extension
