The Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) will serve as the so-called central clearing house of the Transport Ministry's project introduce a single ticket system for its public transport services.
Phadet Praditphet, director of the Common Ticketing Office, disclosed the decision after a meeting of the committee managing the common ticketing programme, adding the MRTA will collect money earned through sales of the common ticket system before the earnings are later paid to private operators concerned.
The Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning and Krungthai Bank will help the MRTA in the early phases. The MRTA will continue this role until a company is established to directly handle the common ticketing system, said Mr Phadet.
The private service providers likely to take part in this new ticketing system include the Expressway Authority of Thailand and the operators of the express boat services, the operators of other electric rail services and the Airport Rail Link service, he said. The idea of creating a uniform ticketing service is to ease life for commuters by increasing convenience.
Terms of reference are being drafted for the venture between service providers expected to take part in the programme, he said.
He said the convergence of ticketing systems of at least the electric rail services and the Airport Rail Link will happen before the middle of the year.
The electric rail Purple Line (Bang Yai-Tao Poon) and about 800 buses operated by the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority are expected to join in October, he said.
The electric rail Green Line (Mo Chit-Samrong) and the underground Blue Line (Bang Sue-Hua Lamphong) will speed up their installations of the shared ticketing system and join the system soon after that, he said.
Other private companies that may take part include convenience store chains under the Central Group and the Charoen Pokphand Group, he said. These businesses will possibly receive payments for the common tickets, he said.