Rail investment underway in Bangkok
A MAJOR new metro line opened in the Thai capital Bangkok in late April - and a large new central railway station is under construction.
The 28km, 19-station extension of the city's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Blue Line means the line is now 48km long, and forms a circle around the city centre, which connects the Thonburi side of the Chao Phraya river to the rest of the city, with a southern branch to Lak Song.
Siemens supplied power and control systems plus 35 three-car EMUs derived from its'lnspiro' design.
The new B0kph Blue Line trains were built at the Siemens factory in Vienna, and some were tested at the Wildenrath test circuit in Germany before delivery to Thailand. Siemens will maintain the fleet for 10 years.
Significant expansion is planned for the MRT system in the next decade with a 475km-route final network planned. In the north of the city a massive new 26-track station is being built at Bang Sue. When complete in early-2021 the new station will largely replace the historic Hua Lamphong terminus in the city centre that opened in 1916, based upon the design of Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof in Germany.
The new Bang Sue Central station will be built on three levels, and will serve the conventional metre-gauge SRT network as well as the new MRT Blue Line platforms underground, which are now open.
The top level of the multi-storey structure, with 10 tracks and 600-metre long platforms, will be the terminus for planned standard-gauge high-speed rail lines plus the Airport Express, operated since 2010 using Siemens 'Desiro' Heathrow Connect Class 360/2 clones.