As per the title, here are some photos taken from inside the ARL commuter train. It was early evening on a weekday, the train was reasonably busy and there wasn’t much room for luggage.
If you want to take the train to the International Airport, train authorities would prefer you take the high speed service which costs extra.
As the title suggests, here is the Airport Rail Link (ARL) fare table for all stations. Click the photo (taken 07.08.2012) for a better view.
You might like to note that all journeys must be completed within 90 minutes. This is easy to do unless you plan on hanging around to do some train spotting.
We visited the Airport Rail Link (ARL) terminal station at Makkasan (มักกะสัน) yesterday. The grey building didn’t look much from the outside, but inside the architecture and huge halls were very impressive.
We hope you enjoy these pictures.
The lower levels of the station were strangely quiet but I’m sure they’ll gather more visitors as shops inside the terminal open and land around the station is developed.
The Airport Rail Link has free parking for customers at Makkasan Station. All parking is under cover and security at the car park appears to be good. On entering the car park we noticed at least one security camera and several security guards.
Parking is available from 06.00 to 24.00 only. This is explained in a notice presented in Thai.
Overnight and longer stays are not allowed, making it unsuitable for many tourists and business people using the Bangkok International Airport (Suvarnabhumi).
Traffic in the local area is often very congested and best avoided if possible. The traffic between MRT Petchaburi and MRT Sukhumvit / Asoke Junction can be particularly bad.
Ramkhamhaeng Road is well known for its traffic congestion and popular shopping drag known as Na Ram (หน้ารามฯ). Na Ram has many roadside market stalls and small shops selling cheap clothes and shoes that appeal to university students on a budget. Most of its customers are young female university students from Ramkhamhaeng University, and you can’t fail to catch a smile from some as you pace the sidewalks.
There is a strong presence of Muslim students in the area and it’s easy to find cheap and tasty food that is likely to appeal to the western palette. There’s also the usual range of Thai chain restaurants and Western fast food outlets.
I usually take the Saen Saeb Express Boat (เรือด่วนแสนแสบ) to Ramkhamhaeng and get off at The Mall Pier (ท่าเรือเดอะมอลล์) which is more or less at one end of the shopping district. The boat is speedy, cheap and convenient but I know many people don’t like it.
The canal water looks [is!] extremely dirty and the express boats are invariably overcrowded and noisy. It would be a major disaster if a boat capsized, but I’ve only only seen one person fall from a boat into the water and as far as I am aware they lived to tell the tale.
Today I needed to get from Fortune Tower (MRT Rama 9) to Ramkhamhaeng but it was rush hour and I didn’t want to slog my way driving through the traffic. Instead, we drove to the City Air Terminal at Makkasan, parked the car and then took the commuter rail service to Ramkhamhaeng Station.
Car parking at the City Air Terminal was plentiful and free — the only condition being that we had to return before midnight. There was no shortage of parking spaces and lower levels of the building were deserted apart from an occasional security guard. It was beautiful but eerily quiet.
As we progressed along and up through the building we started to meet more people and really appreciated the architecture of the station. Some of the halls were cavernous and everywhere was spotlessly clean.
We were lucky with the trains and waited for no more than 2 minutes each way. Each journey was quick, safe and cost only 15 baht per person. We got off at Ramkhamhaeng Station (next to Nasa Vegas Hotel and Apartment) and took a short bus ride to our final destination.
Other than a shortage of escalators, we were delighted with the service and would definitely use the city link again.