Free rides till year end on Green Line route
Commuters travelling on an extended section of the BTS elevated rail route, linking Soi Bearing and Samrong, will be allowed free trips until the end of this year.
The fare exemption for the one-station extension was earlier set to last until April 30, but Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said he asked the operator to extend the free service until the end of this year.
Gen Prayut yesterday presided over the section’s opening ceremony.
The Soi Bearing-Samrong section is part of a 13km rail track extended from BTS’s Soi Bearing station to Samut Prakan, known as the Southern Green Line, at a cost of more than 27 billion baht. The rest of the section is now under construction.
The opening date of Samrong station had been postponed from December last year partly because of unsettled financial issues between the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand, which built the extension, and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, which is allowed to run the line on the condition that it bears all the debts and expenses.
City Hall officials said last month they would ask the cabinet to instruct the Finance Ministry to shoulder the costs.
However, Gen Prayut yesterday said nothing about the proposal. He only emphasised the need to give people better transport at low fares.
This project will especially help city dwellers who need to travel to and from Samut Prakan and nearby Bang Na-Trat Road, he told reporters, adding another eight stations on the Southern Green Line are scheduled to open in 2018.
The extended Soi Bearing-Samut Prakan section will help people avoid crowded Sukhumvit Road on their way to inner Bangkok because they can take the skytrain from Soi Bearing to Siam Square, Silom and Sathon.
Gen Prayut hopes for more convenient travel from Bangkok’s neighbouring provinces to inner-city areas once the construction of many state electric rail routes are completed.
The Southern Green Line is one of the routes with parking areas for motorists already planned.