Bangkok's new people mover

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From Coconuts Bangkok

Automated people movers designed in Canada and built in China will soon arrive to whisk passengers between commercial developments on the Chao Phraya River.

The first of several Bombardier Innovia APM300s will arrive next month to service the Gold Line which will connect the BTS Silom Line to waterfront properties – namely the Iconsiam shopping mall, a city management firm announced yesterday.

Though marketed as a monorail, the Gold Line will more resemble another retro-futurist Disney ride: the PeopleMover. Its three people movers, with two cars each, ride on wheels which follow a rubber track. Each train will hold about 140 passengers.

When it launches in October, Thailand’s first operator-free train will run at a maximum 80kph.

Manit Techaapichok of City Hall project management firm Krungthep Thanakom Co., said work completion was at a very specific “88%.” The cabinet approved the line in 2016 and expected it to be completed two years ago in time for the mall’s opening.

Though criticized as a gift to developer Siam Piwat’s Iconsiam shopping mall outside the city’s master transportation plan, the developer underwrote its estimated THB3.8 billion cost.

It will connect the existing BTS Krung Thon Buri to three new stations at Thonburi, Charoen Nakhon and Khlong San. A future expansion will close the loop by linking it up to the Purple Line.