The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration plans to start charging fares on the extension sections of the BTS Green Line in mid-September. The maximum fare will be capped at 59 baht per ride.
The Mo Chit-Khu Khot and Bearing-Samut Prakan sections have been offered free to passengers for almost two years.
Deputy Bangkok governor Wisanu Subsompon said the fare for riding the Green Line train on any of these two sections alone will start from 14 baht while the maximum fare within the same extension will be 44 baht per ride.
The fare is the same rate that currently applies to the Green Line's previous extension known as the first extension, he said.
The Green Line comprises the Silom and Sukhumvit Lines. The first extension included Wong Wian Yai to Bang Wa stations on the Silom Line and On Nut to Bearing on the Sukhumvit Line.
Just as on the Green Line's first extension, whenever passengers enter any of the two new sections of the second extension, they will be charged 14 baht. The fare will increase two baht per station, he said.
The maximum fare per ride for traversing the entire Green Line will still be capped at 59 baht, he said.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) will now negotiate with the Bangkok Mass Transit System Plc (BTSC), the operator of the Green Line, about the possibility of giving up collecting a 16-baht connecting fee for each passenger when they connect from the second extension to the main Green Line, he said.
If the BTSC doesn't agree on the exemption, the BMA will have to continue shouldering this particular cost for Green Line passengers, he said.
Currently, the BMA now provides Krungthep Thanakhom (KT), its business arm, with a subsidy of about 6.9 billion baht a year to pay the BTSC for the train connection service of the second extension on the Green Line, he said.
The BMA and Bangkok Council have also set up a joint working group to brainstorm what they should do about the 30-year renewal of the concession (2029-2059) granted to BTSC previously under an order by the now-defunct National Council for Peace and Order, he said.
