 This video is sponsored by Nebula, the educational video streaming platform created by me and my creator friends. Check out an exclusive bonus video on Nebula using the link in the description or stay tuned to learn more. Bangkok is probably not a city you immediately associate with rapid transit. It's not Tokyo or Berlin or even Sao Paulo, and yet Bangkok is probably one of the most interesting cities in the world these days for public transit, in particular with its multiple rail systems. And that's not because Bangkok is a city that has grown up around transit, in fact it's quite the opposite. The city is quite car-dependent like many in North America, but now Bangkok is trying to remake itself as a city for people, with a rail network at the center. So let's dive into the unusual and often surprising railways of Bangkok. A big thank you to non-stop EuroTrip, Oren, and JR Urbane Network, who I'll refer to for the rest of this video as JRun, for their images, videos, and other information that helped in making this video. As with all explainer videos, let's take a brief look at the layout and major points of interest in Bangkok before we get into the rail network. Bangkok itself is located in central Thailand, and while parts of the region extend out to the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, Bangkok's center is upriver along the Chao Phraya, similar to a city like Shanghai. The river itself is absolutely central to Bangkok, both in terms of water transport and cultural significance, though its banks are not all that well served by today's rail network. Despite this, it's adorned with the Thai parliament, the grand palace, and a number of iconic Buddhist temples. On a more contemporary note, the riverfront is dotted with high-rise apartments, hotels from famous international chains, and other major mixed-use developments, like the crazy icon-siam shopping mall that is really incredible in both scale and in design. Bangkok as a city actually has a number of major malls, many of which are served by nearby rail lines. There's even the mall district of Ratchaprasong, which is basically right next door, as well as the giant central west gate in the suburbs. Malls and other mixed-use developments are frequently connected into stations by a web of pedestrian overbridges or skywalks, meaning pedestrians rarely have to cross roads or wait for traffic lights. With regard to Bangkok's CBD or Central Business District, it's arguably roughly centered east of Siam Station, a broad area served by several rail lines and filled with fantastically designed high-rises that would look right at home in New York or Dubai. There are also new CBDs emerging across the city, thanks to the rail network. Now arriving in the city was historically more commonly done by train, now mostly superseded by intercity buses, and might be once again if Thailand's high-speed rail ambitions bear fruit. Train service traditionally terminates at the really quite beautiful Bangkok Railway Station, which in case you were wondering has a Duncan Donuts, although unfortunately the importance of Bangkok Railway Station has been diminishing significantly as its difficult approach tracks are narrow, unelectrified, and feature many-grade crossings. These days you're probably more likely to arrive in the city via air if you're coming from overseas, and in this case you've got two main options. To the south-east of the city is Suvarnabhumi Airport or BKK, your typical impressive international mega-hub that moved nearly 70 million passengers per year pre-pandemic, making it one of the world's most trafficked airports. The facility's main terminal has a striking design that was designed by German architect Helmut Jahn and is one of the largest single airport terminal buildings in the world, along with having one of the tallest air traffic control towers as well. The airport is incredibly congested and is being rapidly expanded to handle over 100 million passengers per year, and as part of relief measures the satellite terminal building is also being connected to the main terminal via an APM, using VAL technology later this year. To the north of the city, Don Muang Airport is also becoming more and more significant. The airport DMK is one of the oldest in Asia and was originally built in the early 1900s for the military, located conveniently adjacent to the main railway. It's a major hub for regional and low-cost carriers and was originally the city's main international airport. Despite its reduced current role, it still handled over 35 million passengers per year pre-COVID. I must say, it amazes me that while you can easily take electric rail to either airport in Bangkok, you still can't take it to LAX in Los Angeles, but hey, hopefully not for much longer. Now, with an outline of the city, let's dive into the rail system. As it turns out, Bangkok has several different rail systems operated by different authorities and companies. Altogether, the modern railways already amount to over 130 stations on 200 plus kilometers of track. Pretty impressive for a system that rarely gets much attention. The metro rail is broken into two systems, the Bangkok MRT and the BTS SkyTrain. Both systems run trains on standard gauge tracks powered by a bottom contact 750 volt DC third rail, despite being run by different parties. An important note to make is that Bangkok is quite prone to flooding, as a low-lying city along a river, and this was of course taken into account when designing rail infrastructure. Much of both systems are elevated high above the ground, and what is built at surface level is raised above the ground by as much as a meter to a meter and a half to provide for passive flood protection. The first system to open the BTS SkyTrain consists of three lines, all of which are of course fully elevated. Some key stations on the system have screen doors, though these were retrofitted and were not installed when the system first opened. The SkyTrain is owned by the city itself, although the construction and operations are performed by a private company. The first of these lines is the Bright Green Sukhumvit line, which runs 54 kilometers from the far north of the city to only 2 kilometers away from the gulf of Thailand at the south, serving 47 stations and the city's CBD, as well as Siam Paragon and Central World Mall on the way. This line first opened in 1999 and is really quite long as far as metro lines go, especially since it doesn't have any sort of express service. The other main rail line of the BTS system is the Dark Green Selam line, also first opening in 1999 together with the Sukhumvit line, and now stretches 15 kilometers with 14 stations, from the western part of the CBD to the south and west. Interchanging with the Sukhumvit line, one station away from its northern terminus at the epic Siam station, which is a double-level cross-platform interchange between the two main BTS lines, allowing passengers headed north on the Selam line to easily continue north under the Sukhumvit line. Running on the lines is a mix of Siemens modular metro and CRRC trains. When the lines first opened, trains uniquely had three cars with four doors per side, but trains have grown to four cars each as demand has increased. I'm a big fan of the rather unique blue, white, red and gray color scheme, as well as the onboard passenger information screens. There is a lot that other cities around the world could learn from here. In 2020, the third line in the BTS system, the Gold Line opened. The Gold Line provides frequent service, but this line is not a conventional metro line, and instead uses rubber tire Bombardier and Novia automated people mover technology to connect from the Selam line west of the river to the Aikon Siam Mall and other developments, with another stop further to the north. The second rapid transit system, the Bangkok MRT, has two lines and is owned by the MRT Authority of Thailand. Despite being run by a different company, the MRT follows very similar specifications with a fleet of three-car Siemens modular metro trains. Even more impressive is that despite this, the blue line still managed to move over 400,000 riders per day pre-COVID. That being said, unlike the BTS Skytrain, all stations on the MRT feature platform screen doors and portions of the network are also underground. The first line on the MRT, the aforementioned blue line, opened in 2004 and now extends 47 kilometers with 38 stations, forming a loop with an offshoot around the city. The line starts in the west and then runs east across the city, crossing the river underground and hemming in the CBD to the south and east, before heading north, west across the river a second time, and back south to connect with itself at Tafra station, sort of like the Toei-Oedo line in Tokyo or the future Paris line 15. The MRT blue line also does connect to both of the main BTS lines twice, albeit some of those connections require a substantial walk, which isn't ideal. The other MRT line, the purple line, opened in 2016 and extends 24 kilometers across 16 stations, starting from a connection to the northern portion of the MRT blue line at Taopoon and running to the northwest of the city, including to some borderline rural areas and the central Westgate Mall. As it turns out, the Bangkok region also has an extensive regional train system known as the SRT for the state railway of Thailand, which is being upgraded piece by piece with massive grade separations, usually via elevated running, electrification, and modern stations and rolling stock. Like systems in Taiwan and Japan, the SRT system runs on narrow gauge tracks, though unlike those countries, the SRT utilizes meter gauge. The first of the enhanced lines to open, known as the SRT red lines, truly do present a big improvement with modern Tokyo-esque suburban rail service and Japanese high-capacity multiple-unit trains. These trains draw power from 25 kilovolt AC overhead lines and have a top speed of 145 kilometers per hour, fast for narrow gauge, and much faster than the city's various metro services for longer journeys. Stations are also wildly improved with 200 meter high platforms, which can accommodate long high-capacity trains as well as much improved facilities and shelter. The SRT red lines that just recently started opening in 2021 are creatively and perhaps unsurprisingly divided into the dark red line and the light red line. Both lines are operated by a mix of four and six-car Hitachi AT-100 trains. The dark red line travels to the city's north with 10 stations over 26 kilometers and provides a rail link to DMK airport. Meanwhile, the light red line travels to the west with four stations over 15 kilometers of track providing a connection with the purple MRT line at Bang Saun. The dark red line in particular is interesting as an elevated quad-track line designed for local and express services, including some longer distant services, which Jay Run, who describes Bangkok's railway as a very dope emerging system, his words not mine, likes to point out the similarity between the dark red line and the recently elevated Odaq corridor into Tokyo. The red lines are not so much a new idea, but rather a continuation of a bit of a saga of trying to upgrade Bangkok suburban railways that probably deserves its own video. Suffice to say that the creation of the red lines has involved essentially building new, elevated, and sometimes-at-grade railways over the existing state railway of Thailand right of ways, which generally are in questionable condition and feature lots of great crossings, basic stations, and other obstructions to high-quality service. The hub for the SRT red lines and also a connection point with the MRT blue line is Bang Su Grand Station, now renamed Kung-Tep Apiwat Central Terminal, the effective replacement for the Bangkok railway station. I've got an entire dedicated video going into detail on what is one of the most impressive new-build railway stations in the world outside of China on Nebula, so if you want to scratch that station itch, go check that one out. 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The last of Bangkok's current modern railways is the Airport Rail Link, which, as you might expect, runs from a specially built station under the terminal at BKK into the city. This line runs on standard gauge tracks with 25 kV AC overhead power, mostly elevated above the SRT tracks from the east heading into Bangkok, sort of like the SRT red lines. A fun bit of trivia is that the trains used in the service are actually Siemens Class 360s that used to be used all over the place in the UK. The Airport Rail Link has 8 stations and runs about 27 kilometers east from the city center, with connections to the MRT Blue Line and the BTS Sukumvit Line. Beyond rail, Bangkok does obviously have other transit, including a BRT service, but unlike some other major cities with high capacity BRT like Bogota or Jakarta, Bangkok doesn't feel overly reliant on it, and the service is quite peripheral, having never developed past its one current line into a larger system. As I mentioned at the top, Bangkok is an exciting place for new rail investments, and that's certainly something that stands out when you look at the currently under construction projects. For one, the MRT Purple Line is being extended to the south through the historic city center with 24 kilometers of track and 17 stations. There are also plans to extend the Airport Rail Link to DMK Airport, along 8 kilometers of new track. Now if you're curious how this squares with the narrow gauge SRT line network, the Airport Rail Link actually uses what is planned to be future high speed rail infrastructure, since as with Japan and most of the rest of the world, Bangkok will build out its high speed rail network along standard gauge lines. There are also a number of entirely new lines under construction, including a people mover of some type between the Sukhumvit Line and DMK Airport, allowing for an orbital connection to the dark red line. The city is also building two new high capacity monorail lines, using Bombardier monorail technology with trains manufactured by CRRC. This probably isn't optimal, but given that these lines will likely be fully elevated, it makes sense that monorail would have at least been considered. These lines are the Pink Line, which will connect from near BKK Airport, orbitally to the city's northwest with 30 stations on 35 kilometers of track, and the Yellow Line, which will be a 30 kilometer long line running as a central arc opening west with 23 stations. These two lines are projected to open sometime this year and will likely be similar to Line 15 in Sao Paulo, that also uses high capacity monorail trains from Bombardier. The final new line currently under construction is the MRT Orange Line, 23 kilometers and 17 stations of this line are currently being built. But ultimately, the line will extend east-west through the center of the city, which along with the MRT Purple Line extension will alleviate congestion in the city center, as well as the strange layout of Bangkok's current rail network where the MRT Blue Line sort of loops around the center of the city without necessarily going through all of it. Altogether, these lines will give Bangkok over 300 kilometers of rapid transit and over 200 stations, with five metro lines, two monorail lines, two people mover lines, and three different modern suburban rail services. A very impressive system and a reminder that fast-growing cities in North America, Australia, and other parts of the world should be doing far more to expand their rapid transit. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.