BANGKOK AIRPORT RAIL LINK LATE AGAIN, NO TRAIN AVAILABLE SOON

Once more in Thailand the multibillion-baht megaproject Airport Rail Link from Makkasan to Suvarnabhumi Bangkok airport is way behind schedule and over budget.

Started by deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra administration that was corrupted the fast rail link to airport that should have cost 25,9 billions will actually cost more than 30 billions.

But the situation is now critical and SRT State Railway of Thailand needs to find as much as Bt22.6 billion within the next few months or the rail link project would stop.

The airport rail link is meant to dash passengers from the centre of the capital to the airport in 15 minutes as Asian airports of Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, and Seoul.

The project has been delayed for many reasons as problems accessing construction sites and bad scheduling, and the rail link construction is now under 50 per cent behind schedule.

Today nobody knows how much longer it would take before completion and what the final cost would be, a scandal for that kind of huge project.

A recent compromise between the SRT and the project's builders secured an additional 463 days for construction but even this new delay might not be enough.

Then, when the airport link will be finished the Suvarnabhumi link will immediately start making operational losses because estimates were too optimistic and not as many passengers as originally planed will use this transportation from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport.