Hit and miss by MRTA

Re: “MRTA takes Blue line ‘missing link’ plan forward ( BP, Dec 17)

The one-kilometre walk along Pracha Rat Sai 2 Road from the Purple Line’s Tao Poon station to the Blue Line’s Bang Sue terminal is conducted by passengers mostly in the shadow of a long-constructed overhead railway line. This happens because of the “missing link”, the gap between the two rail networks.

The Purple Line’s rail bed exits Tao Poon station at the skytrain level and carries on until it dips underground in front of the Siam Cement Group complex. There it joins up with the Blue Line’s system just a few hundred metres away. The connecting line can be seen entering a tunnel when standing on the Bang Sue station’s platform.

Why is it then that the long-suffering residents and workers using the Purple Line can see the physical extension to the Bang Sue station basically finished but not operating?

Your article outlined recent talks and conclusions reached between the parties involved with management of this section. However, a decision to move the project forward was seemingly and gleefully denied by the Transport Ministry as a contract had first to be handled by a joint committee under the 2013 Private Investments in State Undertakings Act.

The only “missing link” in this fiasco is one to do with evolution and relates to the negotiators representing the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA), Bangkok Expressway and Metro Public Co (BEM), and Transport Ministry. It seems these agencies were not impressed with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s use of Section 44 last July to accelerate the project along!

JOHN L SHEPPARD