Longer trains desperately needed on the BTS Sukhumvit line

From the day BTS extended its Sukhumvit Line from On Nut to Bearing, the rush-hour commute on that line has become… well, unbearable. With a reported 100,000 additional daily commuters using the extended line, every train headed in the direction of Bangkok's central business district is now crowded beyond capacity and can no longer handle many of the passengers waiting on the platforms.

Many commuters have to let one or two trains pass before they are lucky enough to be able to board. This used to happen once in awhile. Now it's becoming the frustrating norm.

BTS has announced that it will tackle the overcrowding by adding two trains to its rush-hour schedule. That's right, not adding two cars to each train, not even adding two trains per hour - adding just two extra trains during an entire rush-hour period.

The only possible response to this, save for a barrage of unprintable obscenities, is, "They've got to be joking!"

For some time now, and long before the extension to Bearing, Sukhumvit Line trains have been getting more and more congested, especially during peak hours and on weekends. The reason is simple - the number of passengers using the line has grown dramatically, but the trains haven't.

Since it began its Skytrain service in 1999, BTS has operated only short three-car trains on the Sukhumvit Line. This made sense 12 years ago, when only 200,000 passengers made the daily trip, and it wasn't yet clear how successful the service would become. But within a few years, passenger numbers had risen to 500,000 per day - and longer trains became first, more desirable, and later, a real necessity. Last year, BTS began operating new four-car trains on the Silom Line, but the longer and more passenger-heavy Sukhumvit Line was left with its older three-car units.

But as BTS proudly unveiled its extension on that already overburdened line, it had made no corresponding provisions to cope with the extra passenger load. The announced addition of two extra trains during rush hour is an absurdly inadequate response to the congestion problem - way too little and much too late.

The only thing that can alleviate the overcrowding now is the addition of more cars to each train. That could be done in a number of ways. First, by adding one to two trailer (middle) cars to existing trains. Last year Siemens, the maker of trains operating on the Sukhumvit Line, had agreed to provide additional trailer cars to its units, but it's unclear what happened to this arrangement, as BTS has made no recent mention of it.

Another solution would be to bring some of the new four-car Bombardier trains BTS operates on the Silom Line over to the Sukhumvit Line, but the Chinese-made trains have had a number of technical issues over the past few months, so BTS may be reluctant to expand their service. BTS should also be able to make some of its three-car trains into a six-car unit by connecting the motor car of one unit to that of the other. Many commuter trains are lengthened in this manner. And all BTS stations were built to handle a six-car train, so the new train length will be perfectly in line with the stations' design.

For now, BTS would only need to lengthen some of its trains - probably, every third arrival - during rush hour to alleviate passenger congestion. Unless BTS has absolutely no train units to spare, it is hard to understand why they won't apply this solution at once.

For the past 12 years BTS has provided a vital, and, for the most part, efficient service to Bangkok's commuters. That's why it's so disheartening to watch it flounder this time, unable to deal with a problem that should've been entirely predictable and planned for.

One thing is clear. BTS can't continue operating a light-rail network in an urban area of over 15 million people using trains designed for service in a small town - or an amusement park. With the new government promising 10 new Skytrain routes, it's difficult to see how BTS will be able to cope with such major changes if it can't even manage an extension of one line by a mere five stations.

There's no longer any choice. BTS and its customers need trains that reflect the reality of their environment - and they need them now.

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Dave Sherman is a freelance writer living, working and suffering commutes in Bangkok. He can be found on Twitter as @Bangkokdave or at bangkokdave.blog.com.