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Deputy director-general Pranote Suriya said yesterday that an integrated ticket, by providing access to both the Skytrain and subway, would encourage more passengers to travel by rapid transit, which would help reduce rush-hour traffic jams.

The common-ticket system will not only offer more convenience to commuters, but also give system operators travel information on their customers in order to support the government's future infrastructure development policy, he said at the opening of the third Asia Pacific Transport Revenue Collection Discussion Forum.

The Skytrain system now sees 400,000 trips on average a day and the underground 200,000 trips, but this could be boosted to 2.5 million trips a day with common ticketing and five new railway routes, Pranote said.

The Green Line (Mo Chit-On Nut) and Blue Line (Hua Lamphong-Bang Sue) are two of the routes already operating, while under construction are the Airport Metro and the Green Line extension, divided into three sections - Taksin Bridge-Taksin Road, Taksin Road-Bang Wa, On Nut-Baring. The Transport Ministry is scheduled to develop these routes from this year to 2012.