Critical Review of Bangkok Subway System

In Thailand, we just had our first subway system running on July 3, 2004. I just had the chance to ride it yesterday, and after the short ride I've outlined a few critical points about the system.

1) The Lighting System - My first impression when going down the subway was rather mixed. I used to go to lots of rail station when I was abroad, and having one in Thailand kind of get me all edgy. However one of the points that seriously needed addressing here in the subway is the bad lighting system. The lights plainly but is too dull, and they should have put more lights around. I'm having some shivers that the subway may be some secret thief's hideout considering the rather dim lighting - though I could say I may be just overreacting.

2) Floor Plan - I'm quite surprised to note that I had to ride 3 escalator to reach the bottom floor where the trains are. A curious note is the 2nd escalator ride got me to a intermediate floor in which is completely vacant, and I have reason to believe they will develop it into some type of commercial area with many stores plying their stuff. However as the lessons learnt from business on the SkyTrain in which many business found it hard to survive, I am very curious why the space was so spacious in the subway system that suspects me that it would still be vacant for a long long time until consumer behavior changes.

3) Lack of Visible Signs - I nearly rode the wrong train down the track due to lack of visible signs. The signs are simply too small, and not very eye catching. Coupled that with a rather dim lighting system, it just makes it all more confusing. I do want to say that the need of security guards to use a speaker to shout the direction of boarding just illustrates that point.

4) Interior Train Design - Though the train seems similar to the SkyTrain, I just have to say I'm completely disappointed with the subway for one major reason. The lack of railing for the people to catch. In the train that I went on, it was packed, and there was just a single stretch of rail on the middle of the cabby, none anywhere else, making it difficult to stay stable while the train is moving. This issue needs to be addressed urgently lest we want people to fall on each other on the train.

5) Bad Directional Signs - To be frank I exited the Ladphrao station, thinking it would be where I could easily get to Central Ladphrao. Just after I step off the train, the usher told to get back if we plan to go to Central Ladphrao. Great. Phahonyothin Station is where I have to go. Later I exits the station to go to Central Ladphrao, and we got confused again which station exit to get out to get as close to Central Ladphrao. After a short while I found a map explaining the plan. I found exit 3 was the closest. However the map did not tell our orientation, and at the end, I had to figure where was exit 3 by looking at all the signs in the station - which was rather hard to find.

6) Low Bandwidth - Once I reached Exit 3, I found out that there was a very very long queue trying to exit the station to go to Central Ladphrao - but only 3 stations where we can dump our tokens and exit. Considering this is one of the most busy station, its surprising they didn't have enough vision to calculate how much time it would take to vacate a train - which took us close to 5 minutes. Hmm...

7) Bad Air Ventalation - My journey up to now was rather fine, except when I walked towards exit 3. The air simply got stale for some unknow reason - and I suspect there was problems with the air ventalation system in parts of the subway. Not a very good experience I say.

8) Excessive Anti-Fire System - During our trip in Exit 3, my friend Bic, a fire rescue volunteer and I was discussing about the excessive anti-fire system - which we call smoke detectors and sprinker system. Every 5 meters was one of those system in Exit 3. I just couldn't figure why they need that many systems, when strangely in the inverse there wasn't enough air ventalation pipes that should be placed on a higher priority.

9) Lack of Mobile Phone Signal - I just wanted to point out that due to monopolistic practices there are antennas of only one mobile operator at the present - whereas other competitors were denied permission. Go figure.