The Gold Line Monorail

Bangkok's First Fully-Automated People Mover

I'm a massive public transportation nerd, and any time a new train line opens up in Bangkok, I've got to write about it! Since I've lived in Bangkok, there's been a huge boom in public transport. The Purple Line opened up last year, along with the Blue Line extension, which makes a loop in the city center. 

Last year, the brand-new Gold Line opened up! It is small - just running along three stations on the Thonburi side of the river - but it is a huge step in the city's public transportation network.

It's the first monorail (technically, it's a "people-mover"), and it connects Krung Thonburi Skytrain Station with the fantastic IconSiam luxury shopping mall.

I had been meaning to head over to Thonburi to take a ride on the monorail for months, and finally got the chance to do so this week! I boarded at Krung Thonburi Station, which meets up with the Skytrain. Even the station was painted in gold, and it felt fancier and more modern than other metro lines in the city.

Even the tickets are gold! It's certainly not the cheapest mode of transport in Bangkok - a ride from one end of the line to the other costs 30 THB (about $1), but it sure beats walking, especially if it's raining (which it was on the day I visited).

Here are the crazy thing about the Gold Line: it was privately-funded and it is fully self-driving!

The monorail was designed and built to carry shoppers to and from IconSiam (which is why it is such a short route). It's kind of odd to have such a short metro line, but the other options to getting to the mall are by river boat or car, and the owners and investors wanted to make shopping at IconSiam as easy, comfortable, and convenient as possible.

The monorail is quite small - just two cars. It's not a super busy route, though, and it's a short enough ride that it never gets over crowded or too busy. It's a comfortable ride, with plenty of seats if you need them, and lots of standing room as well.

Since the monorail is self-driving, there's a huge front window, which gives riders a great view of the short journey. I was excited to ride the Gold Line, so I hurried into the train as soon as the doors opened, and made my way to the very front so that I could get the best view.

Charoen Nakhon Station at IconSiam is fancy too, and is built in the same style as the mall itself - painted in a crisp white and gold with funky modern Atomic-age angles.

I think that the plan is to extend the Gold Line 1 more kilometer to meet up with a future Purple Line extension. Even though it's a very short line, it is going to be pretty important, as it's the first line to run along the river, and the only metro line so far in Thonburi! It will cut travel times between the Purple and Green Lines to almost nothing, and is an amazing step in the city's rapidly expanding transport network.