The Purple Train

After about a year and a half of it being open, I finally got to take the brand-new(ish) MRT Purple Line!

The train opened in August 2016, and I've been meaning to check it out, but never really had the chance. It's the first of many new metro lines due to open up in Bangkok in the coming years. The city's transport is really set to expand, and I think that's exciting.

The Purple Line is run by the Mass Rapid Transit Authority, the same organization that runs the MRT Blue Line subway through the city. The Purple Line, however, is not a subway. It's a Skytrain like the BTS (Bangkok Transit System) a different company that runs the city's skytrains which kind of connect to the subway at a few places, although each system uses different ticketing and fare cards. It's confusing, and all of the lines were supposed to be integrated into one city-wide transport card by 2015, but here we are, three years later, and still waiting. Oh, and that's not even considering the Airport Rail Link, run by the State Railway of Thailand, another elevated rail that runs to the city on yet another fare system! But, that's Bangkok for you.

The new Purple Line begins at a station called Tao Poon, which until recently didn't even connect to the Blue Line. The two stations were about a kilometer apart, and although there was a shuttle bus, nobody really bothered taking it. The city was wondering why nobody was riding the Purple Line. Eventually they constructed one new stop running from Bang Su to Tao Poon.

The subway slowly rises up out of the ground onto an elevated rail and now finally connects to the Purple Line in a big, clean, remarkably modern and beautiful station.

It still wasn't very crowded, but I have to admit, the station and the trains look great! They look so clean and new! It's a very modern style, and a different design from any of the other lines.

The Purple Line runs just out of town into Nonthaburi, a suburb of Bangkok. It's amazing how quickly the city disappears and is replaced with scenes like this:

This is just a few stops away from one of the busiest places in the whole city!

I'm taking the Purple Line into work for a new part-time tutoring gig I'm doing teaching English to a hotel staff. It's been fun! I'll write a post about that soon. Stay tuned!