Bangkok Transit System Research Articles

Reforming Public-Private Partnerships in Railway Services: Learning from the Jakarta Monorail Project Debacle

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) offer a promising strategy for accelerating railway infrastructure development, yet they entail significant risks if not executed correctly. Indonesia has adopted PPPs since the 1990s, but their impact on railway services remains underexplored. This paper suggests improvements to Indonesia’s railway PPP mechanism to improve effectiveness, efficiency, and service deliverability. It argues that the effectiveness of railway PPPs is hindered by the public sector’s limited capacity and weak regulatory and institutional frameworks. The research employs a case study of the Jakarta Monorail project, terminated in 2015 after 11 years of problematic development. The research methods include literature reviews and a comparative analysis of the case with two prominent railway PPPs in other developing countries: the Bangkok Transit System in Thailand and the Delhi Mass Rapid Transit System Phase I in India. The findings lead to two key recommendations for the government: reorganizing the roles and coordination processes of key PPP agencies and establishing a continuous capacity-building scheme for PPP stakeholders. These recommendations may create a more supportive environment for PPPs, thereby increasing the likelihood of successful railway PPP implementation in Indonesia.

Assessing the Seamlessness of Bangkok Metropolitan Public Transport by using Modified Quantitative Gap Analysis

A sustainable transportation system requires a larger contribution to public transport share in comparison to private transport. Bangkok Metropolitan, the study area, exhibits a significant transport modal alteration trend towards public transport, in line with the expansion of Bangkok Transit System (BTS) and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) for more coverage within the metropolis along main roads along with expansion of public bus routes, which increases the seamlessness and reduces transit time. This study is important as we believe that the higher seamlessness the more urban travelers would shift to using public transport modes. This matter is considered as a pertinent urban transport problem. This study aims at understanding the level of transit seamlessness of the Bangkok public transport system. The study was carried out by firstly measuring six factors of the regular transit process, on formal and informal transport modes used by Bangkokians. These six factors were observed along the origin and the destination of the travelers with respect to travel time, number of transit points, average transit time, comfort, and transit facilities including facilities for disables, and walking distance. A total number of 300 public transport users were selected as respondents, 50 respondents for each selected transit hub. The selection was based on convenient random sampling considering the variability of destinations and purpose of travel. Despite a different destination, the residence was set as the origin. By using Modified Quantitative Gap Analysis, based on six selected transit hubs, the study found that the seamlessness of the inter-modal transits in Bangkok exhibits a characteristics of hard transit process, particularly for disabled people, notwithstanding the continuous efforts to make the seamless transit are in place, particularly with respect to infrastructure facilities.

Peak Demand Cutting Strategy with an On-Board Energy Storage System in Mass Rapid Transit

An energy storage system (ESS) in electric railways can be installed on a train, at trackside, or at substations. The main purpose of the ESS application is to reduce energy demand and peak power with good voltage regulation. This paper presents a control strategy for efficient regenerative braking of a vehicle equipped with an on-board ESS (OBESS) and evaluates the effects on the energy consumption, voltage profile, and power drawn from substations and the OBESS during vehicle acceleration and braking. This proposed strategy is to store recovered braking energy into the OBESS and find appropriate positions to deliver its stored energy back in such a way that the peak demand of all the substations is cut. The Bangkok Transit System (BTS)-Sky Train Silom (Green) Line in Thailand is used as a case study. This system has a service distance of 13.649 km with 13 passenger stations and 7 traction substations. It employs 750-V DC rectifier substations to supply electric power through its 3rd rails. The results showed that the proposed strategy can cut the peak power at the substations approximately 75% and the overall energy consumption of the system can be reduced by 16%.

A Demonstration Project for Installation of Battery Energy Storage System in Mass Rapid Transit

This paper presents an application of the stationary Li-ion battery on behalf of battery energy storage system (BESS) in the mass rapid transit system. The DC electrified railways have often-frequent stop during their journey that mean the regenerative braking energy from the train braking is likely to regenerate back to the DC electrified network. This energy could potentially support the auxiliary loads onboard and the adjacent trains simultaneously; however, the electrical braking resistance onboard would dissipate some of the surplus energy. The surplus energy could be absolutely recovered and stored in the stationary BESS and then this potential energy is efficiently supplied to support that own train’s for acceleration or other adjacent trains simultaneously. The modified Bangkok Transit System (BTS)-Sky Train Sukhumvit Line in Thailand (from Mochit – Bearing stations) is employed for the demonstration with the multi-train simulator (MTS). This system has the service distance of 21.60-km with 22 passenger stations and 8 traction substations. The electrified operation system is 750-V DC rectifier substations to supply the electric power through the 3rd rail. Results show that the energy saving of the BTS system with the stationary BESS and with regenerative braking energy is achieved by 13 times of the system with BESS and without regenerative braking energy.

Multi-train modeling and simulation integrated with traction power supply solver using simplified Newton–Raphson method

Multi-train modeling and simulation plays a vital role in railway electrification during operation and planning phase. Study of peak power demand and energy consumed by each traction substation needs to be determined to verify that electrical energy flowing in its railway power feeding system is appropriate or not. Gauss–Seidel, conventional Newton–Raphson, and current injection methods are well-known and widely accepted as a tool for electrical power network solver in DC railway power supply study. In this paper, a simplified Newton–Raphson method has been proposed. The proposed method employs a set of current-balance equations at each electrical node instead of the conventional power-balance equation used in the conventional Newton–Raphson method. This concept can remarkably reduce execution time and computing complexity for multi-train simulation. To evaluate its use, Sukhumvit line of Bangkok transit system (BTS) of Thailand with 21.6-km line length and 22 passenger stopping stations is set as a test system. The multi-train simulation integrated with the proposed power network solver is developed to simulate 1-h operation service of selected 5-min headway. From the obtained results, the proposed method is more efficient with approximately 18 % faster than the conventional Newton–Raphson method and just over 6 % faster than the current injection method.

Multi-Train Movement Simulation Using MATLAB Object-Oriented Programming

This paper is to demonstrate the use of MATLAB Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) for developing Multi-Train Movement Simulation (MTMS). Dynamic performance of the train movement is modeled with the help of Newton’s law of motion. Train movement in this work is based on a sequence of four operating modes: i) accelerating mode, ii) constant speed or cruising mode, iii) coasting mode and iv) braking mode. The design concept of a train movement class is described with its properties and methods. To evaluate its use, the proposed train movement simulator developed here is tested against Bangkok Transit System (BTS) – Sky Train Silom Line. This system has the service distance of 13-km and is fed by seven 750-V DC power sources through its 3rd rail. The results showed the effectiveness of the proposed simulator.

Rail Transit and Residential Land Use in Developing Countries

The effects of public transit improvements on residential land use in general, and on residential property prices in particular, have not been well investigated in developing countries. Such an understanding is necessary for the formulation of value capture policies, which can be instrumental in the financing of transit infrastructure. In this paper past studies on the effect of transit improvements on property prices in developing countries are reviewed, and the hedonic models are developed to examine this relationship in Bangkok, Thailand. Spatial regression models are estimated with data on multifamily residential properties near the Bangkok transit system's stations. Estimation results show that the premium of transit accessibility is approximately $10 for every meter closer to a station, and the price elasticity with respect to the distance to the nearest station is roughly −0.09. These findings are consistent with the range found in past studies from other developing countries. The substantial premium of transit accessibility implies that there is a great potential for the use of value capture policies to raise additional funds for investments in Bangkok's transit system.