Rolling Stock: New trainsets?

[sabaisabai]

I'm curious about the future train lengths of BTS trains. First of all, has BTS ever run trains longer than three carriages, I guess by joining two three-car trains together?
In the long term would it be expected to run longer trains doubled up, or to add new non-driver carriages to extend a single set of cars? How many carriages are the platforms designed for?

Just curious..

[mrtfreak]

i think i saw on 1 website that it was 6. yes, the siemens website has said that the trains were built in sets of 6. 2 driving cars and 4 trailer.

[Hitesh]

during the testing phase (in 1999) i remember seeing 6 car trains. i managed to get a ticket for a 'test ride' in one of these as well. they switched to 3 car trains when they realised there werent enough passengers to fill 6 cars.

on a side note, the 5th anniversary supplement in the bangkok post on sunday said bts is using 32 of 35 of its carriages and is going to order more.

edit: you can also read that information here: http://angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/Skytrain/index.shtml#5th

[The Enforcer!]

Originally posted by Hitesh
during the testing phase (in 1999) i remember seeing 6 car trains. i managed to get a ticket for a 'test ride' in one of these as well. they switched to 3 car trains when they realised there werent enough passengers to fill 6 cars.

on a side note, the 5th anniversary supplement in the bangkok post on sunday said bts is using 32 of 35 of its carriages and is going to order more.

edit: you can also read that information here: http://angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/Skytrain/index.shtml#5th
Excuse my stupidity but if they are three car sets, how can they be using 32 of them? Or are we saying 32 three-car sets?

The Enforcer!

[Nekochan]

As far as I recalled.

BTS and MRTA flatforms can accomodate 6 car train. For BTS, 6 car train was originally planned (600,000 ridership). Now with average ridership more than half, they will be added to 6 cars for sure.

And we are talking about 32 three-car sets.

I hope they have more passengers to go for extentions!!

Suriya... WHO?

[R. Zimmermann]

1) the system and the stations are designed to accomodate trains
composed of 2 units of 3 cars each.
2) Saphan Taksin cannot accomodate the full lengths. They will
have to think of "something" once they must regularly run
full length trains
3) Even so, I saw (and rode on) a 6 car train on the Silom line. It
made at least one round trip, if not more. Forgot the date;
reason given was that a backlog had to be cleared as a
consequence of some kind of service interruption.
4) adding a motorized or non-motorized trailer, I think in theory
it ought to be possible. Maybe we could get some expert
advice.

[Nekochan]

I wonder what BTS is going to do with Taksin Station when they extent the Silom Line?

It is S6 (as originally planned) and I heard they will remove the platform completely.

They will stop at S7 and S8 instead. Taksin Station may end up like Suksawittaya (S4)

..... there is no station at S4.

How will they extent north to Ratchayotin?? I think they cannot go underneath Don Muang Tollway (not enough clearance?), except Vipavadi/Lad Prao Flyover goes underground.

But there is MRTA Blue line (tunnel) underneath!!

[Wisarut]

Khun Nekochan,

S6 Station is TOO Cretical to be Decommissioned at all. The COnnection with Chao Phraya Express Boat at Sathon Pier
alone is a GOOD reason for the existence of S6 station.

At worse, S6 Station has to be REBUILT so as to accommodate the double track ...

For Ratchayothin extension, they have to make a detour so as to avoid crossing Lad Prhao Intersection directly. The next station may be at PTT HQ because there are LOTS of demands outta there ... such as the intercity buses from Mochit 2 to Lopburi + Singhburi or so ... and thsoe extra bus whcih end up at Mochit uisually make a U-turn at Lad Phrao flyover, not far from the place I mentioned .....

After that they may have to go through teh sharp curve so as to be ack to Phaholyothin at Lad Phrao Triangle (AKA Somdej Yah 84 Park) or make a right turn at Ratchawipha, passing SCB Park Plaza and end up at Ratchayothin. If it is the latter case, it will be
a very good deal if BTS decides to make a via duct connectign with SHhinnawatra 3 Building Same can be said to the future Sana Ruan station with connection to Shinnawatra 1 ans Shinnawatra 2 ... This will help BTS to have an edge over Ai Suriya since BTS decide to PLEASE Premeir Thaksin .... becomgin an inner circle ....

[The Enforcer!]

Khun Wisarut ... all your ideas make good sense ...hence it will never happen like that!!!

Saphan Taksin is a virtal stationso it will be closed!!

[Sorry, am I becoming too much of a sceptic?]

The Enforcer!

[R. Zimmermann]

If Saphan Taksin's survival and/or adaption is to be prevented politically, BTS might have to "go it alone". ATO and ATC would allow single track operation with only one platform track. With a
frequency of, say, 150 seconds and station dwelling time of, say,
max 60 seconds it would be feasible. Part of the present stump track could accomodate a lenghtened platform. What might cause
concern is the platform and station capacity. On the other hand,
overall passenger volume might in fact decline, if most of the cross-river traffic choses to continue to Thoburi by BTS. Does
anybody have any figures?

[Nekochan]

I did a study for future year 2003. They initially planned for 2003 that BTS would complete the extention to Thonburi.

The number was ..... I think +50,000 daily passengers to Wong Wein Yai. It was based on one assumption that S6 was closed and BTS will operate S7 and S8, instead.

Total ridership was around 640,000 per day (with new MRTA underground line)

OTP has new figures done by Team Consultants (???)

[admin]

Interesting comments sent in by a reader (he can identify himself if he wants to):

BTSC decided to pick up CNR Changchun for 12 new sets of 4-car formation at the price of US$70 million. We'll see how they are going to be look like since it has been designed by Porsche--the same firm that designed BTSC sets from Siemens.
The ONLY thing that make me worried is the metallurgical process to turn iron into steel since Chinese steel is produced by the same method as Russian steel -> very hard but quite brittle due to the process to create martensite (the mixture of iron and carbon to form hared steel) ... The ideal one would be hard steel for the external parts with soft steel part ... without soft steel, it will be vulnerable to become cracks after certain load .... This would not happen for the steel form Thyssen Krupp, US Steel, Nippon Steel or even POSCO.
SRT got very hard lessons about the crack on the rolling stocks (BCFs) .... limiting speed to 55 KPH for cargo trains instead of 80 kph as specified .... the Broken valve of the gas train also compels SRT to shut down service for 5 hours so the natural gas will be flown away .... at the section from Yommaraj to Bangsue.

[GWR]

This report and the last post seem to be connected:

BMA mulls acquiring more skytrain cars

(BangkokPost.com) – The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is contemplating acquiring more skytrains to provide services on the Bangkok Mass Transit System once the new Silom route, which spans 2.2 kilometres, is completed.

Deputy city clerk, Panit Wikitset, revealed plans to add 12 more trains to the existing fleet of 35 trains. The new trains, if purchased, will be brought into service over the course of the next three years.

With the addition of the new trains, the Sukhumvit line could have as many as 35 trains providing services to commuters. The Silom line will have a total of 12 trains operating.

Mr Panit also hinted that more trains could be acquired once talks to construct the Onnuj-Baring route on the Sukhumvit line are completed.


Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=123385

[Yappofloyd]

Just thought it may be good to post the specs (copied from a post in skyscraper) of the current 3 car sets.

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/2895/ggrg6.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4241/ggtw4.jpg