How to fix Bangkok’s Makkasan Station

The Future Southeast Asia Newsletter features transport and urban development news in Southeast Asia, edited by James Clark.

Hello from Chiang Mai. I’m here for another month, and I am planning where to go for the next few months. I will be going back to Vietnam, and I’m waiting to find out the opening date of the Bangkok-Vientiane train service.

I was considering getting the Laos-China Railway to Kunming, but it was just announced that Australians (that’s me) will be able to travel to China visa-free. I will wait until that is official before making a plan.

This week’s article is about Makkasan Station in Bangkok. This is a big station that was built for the Airport Rail Link, but a series of bad decisions have led to most of the station being unused. The station and the tracks of the airport railway are now hindering future railway development in this corridor. It’s a planning mess, so my article tries to come up with some solutions.

Latest posts at Future Southeast Asia

• How to fix Makkasan Station, Bangkok’s failed City Air Terminal

Makkasan Station is a station on the Airport Rail Link (ARL) connecting central Bangkok to Suvarnabhumi Airport. It’s a grand station from the outside, but on the inside, it’s a ghost town.

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News

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• Reclaiming Phnom Penh’s streets for citizens

“Lost in between the colonisation of public space by cars, and the drive to develop Cambodia’s capital for commercial interests, is the possibility for urban renewal that draws on citizens’ own improvisational efforts to humanise urban space.”

• Techo International Airport work enters final stage

• Banteay Meanchey’s irrigation canal project nears halfway mark

• Kandal border city swelling with mysterious condos

This is in Sampov Poun (map), which is opposite a corner of Vietnam I’ve not been to. Like every other Cambodian border town, there are casinos.

• Three Cambodian enterprises tapped to sell sand to Vietnam

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• Jakarta marks last birthday as Indonesian capital, with plans to remain country’s economic hub

🇱🇦 Laos

• Laos inaugurates four irrigation systems funded by Vietnamese Government

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• Penang confirms Mutiara Line LRT alignment connecting island to mainland

• 'Game-changing' ECRL reaches two-thirds completion

• Pre-feasibility study on trans Borneo railway development

• National Landscape Dept to identify suitable tree species for roadside shade in urban areas

 🇵🇭 Philippines

• Subic-Clark-Manila-Batangas railway construction to start in 2027

• PBBM’s order on Mindanao railway to push through ‘very clear’: MinDA

• Philippines plans 17 new ports to boost agricultural supply chain

• Mactan-Cebu Airport poised to become next transit hub

• Japan’s Zip to study cable car system in Baguio’s Camp John Hay

This is being planned as an urban transit system, which some Latin American cities are doing (such as Medellin). Cable cars in Southeast Asia are mainly for leisure (here is the list).

• Marcos wants Pasig River development done in three years

• Philippines emerges as South-east Asia’s renewable power pacesetter

• Japanese-style suburban communities set to pop up outside Metro Manila (archive)

🇸🇬 Singapore

• 'We are not done expanding the rail network,' says PM Wong at opening of Thomson-East Coast Line Stage 4

• Seven MRT stations on TEL open for passenger service

• LTA awards Japanese joint venture $242m contract to build tunnels for Cross Island Line

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Construction of last three double-track rail routes approved

“The 678-kilometre routes were part of a total of seven double-track railway megaprojects. They include the 168.2km Chumporn-Surat Thani route, costing 30.4 billion baht; the 321km Surat Thani-Songkhla route (66.2 billion baht); and the 189km Denchai-Chiang Mai route.”

• Good news on eastern corridor high-speed railway

"Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin is vowing to push for a high-speed railway project linking three main airports to ensure the success of the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) and he expects good news to revive the long-delayed railway project next month."

• Govt 'keen' to expedite Korat link

• I found an official website for the Thai–Chinese High-speed Railway: highspeedrail-thai-china.com

• DP World CEO to meet Thai PM for talks on THB1-trn land bridge

• Tourism-deprived South Thailand provinces expect better days with improved road, air access

The plan includes the upgrading of Narathiwat airport.

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• Vietnam to start work on high-speed rail within next 3 years: transport minister

“Work on a 1,500-kilometer high-speed rail link between the northern and southern regions will start in 2026 or 2027, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang has said.”

• Chinese giants keen on Vietnam metro railway projects

• Stuart from the Couchfish Newsletter wrapped up a 4-part series on his visit to Phu Quoc, reporting on the massive overdevelopment that has taken over the island.

• Structural part of HCMC airport's new terminal completed

• Long Thanh airport construction ahead of schedule

Technically it’s years behind schedule, but they are working with a revised completion date. There is still no mention of an airport rail link.

• Ho Chi Minh City to open SE Asia's largest wastewater treatment plant in 2025

• Hanoi to spend $1.7B to make public bus fleet green by 2030

• Sand mining suspended over sinking homes