Launch of extended Blue Line electric train in Bangkok set in coming months

BANGKOK, April 18 (TNA) - The state-run Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) says that the extended electric train service of the Blue Line Route should fully serve the public in Bangkok on the commercial basis by September 2019. MRTA Deputy Governor Vithaya Punmongkol told journalists on Thursday that additional 15-16 trains, three cars each, of the extended Blue Line Route will all arrive in Thailand in the coming months, with the first three-car train to reach the capital by April 24. Vithaya acknowledged once each of the first three-car train arrives in the city, it will be tuned with the electric signal system of the Blue Line Route, set to be completed within one month each. According to the MRTA deputy governor, a test-run of the extended Blue Line electric train service with the new sets of cars, starting from the Hua Lamphong Station to the newly-opened Lak Song Station, is scheduled for July 2019, before it will be fully launched for public service on the commercial basis, with a total of 35 new trains of three cars each, in September 2019. The MRTA deputy governor announced that the construction of the extened railway of the Blue Line Route has been 100 per cent completed and the installation of its electric signal system has been 80 per cent completed, with the remaining 20 per cent set to be fully completed timely for the two-month test-run, starting from July, during which free-rides will be offered to passengers. The MRTA deputy governor estimated that passengers using the Blue Line electric train route should increase by 200,000 a day, to about 500,000 a day, when the new extended Lak Song Station is fully opened in the last quarter of this year and should further increase to 700,000-800,000 a day totally when the extended Blue Line Route is launched in its full loop, from the Hua Lamphong Station to Tha Phra Station, in the coming years. (TNA)