New draft act to make one joint ticket for all Bangkok transport

Travelling around Bangkok may get a little bit easier if the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning has its way. The OTP is planning to propose a joint ticket that would be created to be valid on all public transport in Bangkok to make commuting around the city using public transportation much more streamlined.

Bringing all the different transport agencies and public transport methods together is no easy task though. Allowed have to be created and enforced to connect all the separate means of transportation under one ticket. A subcommittee chaired by the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transport later this month will be presented with the draft of the act, according to the OTP director.

If the subcommittee approved the plan to create a unifying public transport ticket in Bangkok, it would be passed on to Minister of Transport Saksayam Chidchob who would then approve it and send it to the Cabinet and then the Council of State, and then finally to Parliament for final approval and ratification.

The draft act will have to navigate the integration and operation of all the bus and train services in Bangkok and will address how they are funded and administrated, as well as define all the passenger ride rates. They have looked at the new EMV Contactless cards as a standard to emulate for the new joint ticket, but say that the EMV system now in use on some boats and electric trains won’t be made obsolete.

While the OTP works on a single unifying ticket, other alliances are making progress. Transport services are in talks to make a joint ticket that works on both the MRT and BTS. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is negotiating with the Bangkok Transit System Corporation despite a debate over the BTS Green Line extension.

A new joint card might also be put into place for the new Pink and Yellow lines once they are operational. BTSC has been eying joint ticket systems with Rabbit Card for a while and is eager to get at least a few lines running on the same card. But a singular card for all Bangkok transportation would be the most beneficial to commuters and riders in the city, should the draft act be approved.

SOURCE: The Nation