Train lessens strain in Bangkok

Bangkok traffic is the stuff of legend - of four-hour commutes and of service stations selling potties so car-users stuck in jams can relieve themselves.

Progress is being made to speed up the traffic by building a network of motorways, and to reduce pollution by imposing stricter emission controls. The most likely solution to the problem that most upsets visitors and locals - getting around the place - arrived with the formal opening of the Bangkok Mass Transit System, popularly known as the Skytrain.

The Skytrain has been running unofficially for almost a year, so it is possible to begin a balance sheet of its effects, which are mostly positive.

The good news first. Riding on it is a delight: new, air-conditioned trains, running at three- to five-minute intervals. They are quiet and clean, with each carriage joining the next without any gap, so that it feels like being inside a smooth long snake, rather than separate clanking carriages.

There are two lines, intersecting at Siam Square, one of the main shopping zones. The shorter one is useful for visitors in the posh hotels on the river to whisk round and do their bargain-hunting. The longer route brings people in from the eastern and northern suburbs and will do more to get people off the roads.

The final bit of good news is that it is, to the visitor at least, cheap.

Now the bad news. People underneath not only have the sight of great concrete pylons and the railbed above, they also suffer from the traffic fumes trapped below.

The next generation of urban transit systems, scheduled to open in about five years, will be underground. So by 2005, tourists in the Thai capital may at last be able to enjoy a cheap, clean, and safe way to get around a wild city.

- INDEPENDENT