The Cabinet approved the Transport Ministry’s proposal today, to cap the fare on all electric train services in Bangkok and suburban areas at Bt20 for the entire length of each train’s route, starting October 1.
Government Spokesman Jirayu Huangsap said that the cap is only applicable to Thai nationals, who are required to register via the “Thang Rath” platform by presenting their ID cards to confirm their identity.
Registration can be made in August and those who have registered can pay their train fares by using their registered credit, debit cards or Rabbit cards, starting on October 1st.
This new train fare is applicable on the Green, Gold, Yellow, Pink, Blue, Purple and Red lines, as well as the Airport Rail Link and 13 suburban train services.
Jirayu said that, in the future, a QR Code system will be introduced and train commuters can use their cell phones, instead of their cards, to pay the fares.
The 20-baht fare is one of the flagship policies, pledged by the Pheu Thai party during its election campaign about two years ago. To date, though, this policy has only been in effect on the Purple and Red lines.
The train operators, namely BTS, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the MRT, Bangkok Expressway and Metro (BEM) and the State Railway of Thailand, will be compensated for their revenue shortfalls by the taxpayer, Jirayu said.
He claimed that the new uniform train fare will help to reduce travel costs incurred by the use of private cars, it will reduce road traffic accidents and reduce carbon emissions.
