Public transport services and facilities are being readied to handle a surge in New Year travel at various transport hubs, from airports to subway stations, as the festive season is around the corner.
Transport officials expect a large exodus of people will stretch public transport to its limit as they head to places within the country and overseas to celebrate the New Year long weekend from Dec 30-Jan 2 when travel is estimated to peak.
Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said a total of 16.5 million travellers will be using public transport services during the period. To facilitate them, or at least ease the land traffic congestion, the ministry is stepping up the frequency to public transport services.
The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority will run an estimated 141,000 city bus trips to serve 7.9 million passengers during the New Year holidays, he said.
Electric trains will be also be increased in frequency. The Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand, which runs the Blue Line subway and Purple Line elevated train, will increase frequencies by at least 1% from last year to 5,205 trips during the long weekend.
As for aviation, a total of 19,748 flights will operate from Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi airports during the New Year.
More taxis will also be put in service at Suvarnabhumi.
"We expect air travellers will take between 9,000 and 10,000 taxi trips [to and from Suvarnabhumi airport] per day during this month alone," Suvarnabhumi director Sirote Duangratana said.
There are currently 1,000 extra taxis to pick up passengers every Friday between 5pm and 10pm, which is usually the busiest traffic time at the airport.
In case of long queues at the airport-designated taxi stands, taxis which drop off passengers outside the departure hall will be dispatched to pick up those waiting in the queues to help ease the bottleneck.
People who do not want to face a long wait can drive their cars to the airport where parking lots on the buildings and on the ground level can accommodate more than 5,000 vehicles, he said.
However, Mr Sirote said the parking buildings nearest to the terminal quickly filled up while the Zone C parking area which is located a short distance away has some vacant parking space.
The airport has also prepared the park and ride service with shuttle buses taking people to and from the terminal to nearby transport junctions every 15 minutes free of charge, the director said.
The shuttle buses will take people who park their cars at the Mega Bang Na shopping complex and Bang Na skytrain station to and from Suvarnabhumi.
Meanwhile, Mr Arkhom said the inter-provincial bus service will add more buses to cater for an expected jump in passenger traffic. The state-run Transport Co Ltd will operate 54,933 trips for over one million passengers during the New Year.
The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) is also deploying more trains to accommodate more than 783,000 people estimated to take the train to get to and from their home provinces at the New Year when more than 1,600 train trips will be run, he added.
The SRT will add 14 additional services from Dec 29-Jan 3 to meet demand, acting SRT governor Anon Lueangboribun said.