PHUKET: The plan to build a tramcar link 60 kilometres down the spine of Phuket, raised again in news outlets today, will be a huge waste of 20 billion baht by the Thai government.
Any close examination of the idea will reveal major flaws. Yet a report in the Bangkok Post says the preliminary planning is 80 percent complete.
The proposal to link Phuket International Airport with Chalong in southern Phuket simply will give the island a service that is too slow and takes too long for tourists to reach the west coast destinations - which is where most of them want to go.
The reason why public transport works so well in Bangkok is that the systems are faster than regular traffic by taxi or tuk-tuk. Sometimes, even a motorcycle is slower.
However, the figures given for the Phuket project so far demonstrate it would be much slower than existing transport by road.
Phuketwan believes a much better approach would be to add as many new lanes as possible to the existing north-south route and at the same time ban all large buses from the island.
The hilly routes across to Patong, Kamala, Kata and Karon trigger too many bus breakdowns and more dangerous crashes.
Large trucks should also be banned from Phuket.
The idea that a system that works well in Bangkok will also work well in Phuket is not logical thinking.
The preference of Phuket residents and visitors is to use taxis, personal vehicles and motorcycles.
To go from the convenience and speed of a taxi or car or motorcycle to the slow, hesitant tram is a setback that travellers won't tolerate.
Transport planners need to provide tourists and residents with the actual figures on travelling times.
Then everyone will quickly realise that this system being proposed for Phuket will never be utilised - and it will get in the way of a possible enlargement of the number of lanes, which should be the plan.
Phuket travellers are used to the convenience of door-to-door travel in reasonable time by their own transport. Public transport has no chance of competing with that.
The Bangkok solution is inappropriate for Phuket and should be abandoned and replaced by an idea that works for the holiday island.
Any close examination of the idea will reveal major flaws. Yet a report in the Bangkok Post says the preliminary planning is 80 percent complete.
The proposal to link Phuket International Airport with Chalong in southern Phuket simply will give the island a service that is too slow and takes too long for tourists to reach the west coast destinations - which is where most of them want to go.
The reason why public transport works so well in Bangkok is that the systems are faster than regular traffic by taxi or tuk-tuk. Sometimes, even a motorcycle is slower.
However, the figures given for the Phuket project so far demonstrate it would be much slower than existing transport by road.
Phuketwan believes a much better approach would be to add as many new lanes as possible to the existing north-south route and at the same time ban all large buses from the island.
The hilly routes across to Patong, Kamala, Kata and Karon trigger too many bus breakdowns and more dangerous crashes.
Large trucks should also be banned from Phuket.
The idea that a system that works well in Bangkok will also work well in Phuket is not logical thinking.
The preference of Phuket residents and visitors is to use taxis, personal vehicles and motorcycles.
To go from the convenience and speed of a taxi or car or motorcycle to the slow, hesitant tram is a setback that travellers won't tolerate.
Transport planners need to provide tourists and residents with the actual figures on travelling times.
Then everyone will quickly realise that this system being proposed for Phuket will never be utilised - and it will get in the way of a possible enlargement of the number of lanes, which should be the plan.
Phuket travellers are used to the convenience of door-to-door travel in reasonable time by their own transport. Public transport has no chance of competing with that.
The Bangkok solution is inappropriate for Phuket and should be abandoned and replaced by an idea that works for the holiday island.
Being under serious but underwhelming small bids, up seven bars under standard beyond United States, brings up several better uplifting statements, berating undeveloped services by unfolding situations, better urban service, bigger underpass sites, barely undermining safety bar upping steps.
Posted by Bus on November 2, 2015 12:08