Bangkok BTS Skytrain breakdown causes day of misery for travellers

News in Asia
Bangkok BTS Skytrain breakdown causes day of misery for travellers

A technical breakdown on the Bangkok BTS Skytrain yesterday caused severe disruption and holdups for commuters and tourists. A switch failure at Chit Lom Station that occurred at 06:00 in the morning was not fixed until late last night.

BTS has released a statement saying the problem at Chit Lom has been resolved and trains are operating to their scheduled timetables today. Anat Arbhabhirama is the director of the BTS and he said engineers and station staff had done their best to help passengers and keep them informed about delays to the service. He added that on behalf of BTS he wished to apologise for the inconvenience the breakdown had caused.

Although BTS was able to run trains on the Sukhumvit Line, it involved splitting the line into two sections. Trains ran between Mo Chit and Siam stations. At Siam, passengers were forced to change trains if they were continuing their journeys on the Sukhumvit Line in the direction of Bearing Station. 

As a result, travellers were forced into long queues that snaked all the way down the stairs from the platforms and onto the streets. Siam is the interchange station for the Silom Line, the other line on the BTS system. This line was not affected, but the knock-on effect saw passengers facing delays at stations on it too.

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