Travel ingenuities we can copy from Thailand
I have just returned from a trip to Bangkok, Thailand last week and was quite impressed with the things I saw. It had been at least seven years since my last trip to the Land of Smiles and much of what I remember was still there, but better in many ways.
First was Suvarnabhumi International Airport. It’s massive. Plans are already afoot to build a third runway, another midfield satellite apron to improve airport capacity and faster turn-around, and a new terminal expected to be operational by 2033. No wonder Thailand saw 35.5 million foreign tourists in 2024. The Philippines? stagnant at 5.44 million last year. NNIC, the operator of the country’s primary airport is working hard to improve capacity to 35 million by 2030 but that still pales in comparison to Suvarnabhumi’s 62-65 million capacity. We need to play the long game here if we really want to entice more tourists to visit the country and spend their money into our economy.
Next up are the trains. Bangkok has at least eight operational mass transit lines, including one dedicated to the airport as its terminus. We are struggling with three, with a fourth one underway very soon and the subway hopefully finished within the next decade if right-of-way issues are sorted. This was something the country could have addressed sooner.
Third are the elevated highways. Metro Manila has one fully operation (Skyway Stage 3), one close to being fully operational (NLEX-SLEX Connector Road). The issue is these elevated intra-city highways lack exits to help accessibility and ease congestion. Bangkok has several, with more planned and have good accessibility throughout the city . Chief of which is the Bang Na Highway, the world’s longest elevated highway at 54 kilometers in length. We don’t necessarily need more elevated highways, but we need more entry / exit points to fully utilize Skyway and NLEX-SLEX Connector.
Fourth, and this is fairly very easy to implement, are elevated walkways situated underneath the BTS Skytrain along Sukhumvit Road. Sukhumvit Road is an important business, leisure and tourism thoroughfare which has the majority of Bangkok’s world-class shopping malls located. The elevated walkways connect directly to the shopping malls and other important buildings along Sukhumvit. It allows passengers to avoid walking on the tiny sidewalks (an issue similar to the Philippines, made worse by illegally parked cars, vendors and garbage), and in our case at least, during times of flooding, allows pedestrians to continue walking safely to reach safety. These elevated walkways are covered, lighted but are also their own structure; they don’t attach to the BTS Skytrain which would add load to the precisely measured load rating of the elevated train lines.
And being elevated and well-lit, it improves safety, can be better policed or at least monitored for safety as its harder for bad elements to victimize pedestrians and make hasty getaways on an elevated walkway. It also removes dangers of being victimized by riding-in-tandem criminals who snatch and go by the road-side.
It’s a simple yet ingenious and very highly effective means to allow pedestrian movement freely, encourage people to walk short distances and reduces reliance on vehicles. My wife and I enjoyed it so much, we used it to navigate going to different malls shopping for Bangkok’s cheap finds and equally affordable yet very tasty food!
Lastly is Bangkok’s extensive use of the Chao Praya River as an important thoroughfare. Our Pasig River can also serves as an important thoroughfare from the massive residential concentration in Rizal, stopping at major areas like Kalayaan in Kapitolyo, Pasig or BGC side, Guadalupe-EDSA, Rockwell-Makati, Circuit Makati all the way to Fort Santiago in Manila. The missing link? Creating a transport depot for taxis, PUV, tricycles and Grab car on each of the proposed ferry stations. That would create the connectivity to make Pasig River ferry services truly viable.
There’s so much we can copy from our ASEAN neighbors. We just have to be pragmatic, observe and find out what’s cost-effective, easy to implement and can be implemented in stages. The SM Group is doing something similar already with the elevated walkway from SM Megamall to the MRT3 Ortigas Station. We should implement that on all elevated tracks and areas of the EDSA-MRT and LRT2 particularly along Cubao.
What else do you think can we copy from our ASEAN neighbors to improve mobility, connectivity and accessibility for all?
