Thailand's new US$3.5 billion subway opened in Bangkok on Saturday in the government's latest attempt to ease the traffic jams that often choke the capital and force some motorists to keep portable urinals in their cars.

"Traffic in Bangkok will be at a stand-still without urgent construction of subways because the government can't build roads fast enough to serve surging new car sales," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in his weekly radio address on Saturday. "My government has put the construction of mass transit systems as one of the most urgent plans."

King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit opened the 20-kilometre subway line and took the 30-minute train ride. The line connects Bangkok's main station, Hua Lampong, with Bang Sue in the north of city. The subway is expected to carry about 250,000 passengers a day in the first year.

Building a rapid transit system in Bangkok, a city of about 8 million people, was approved by the Thai cabinet in 1976.

The government accelerated the plan in the early 1990s when traffic in Bangkok sometimes crawled at 3 kilometres an hour, according to a report by the Thailand Development Research Institute.

Drivers on the Charoenkrung Road in central Bangkok face the worst traffic jams, where vehicles moved an average 7.1 kilometres an hour in the morning rush hour last year, according to the Web site of the Office of Transport and Traffic Planning and Policy.

Traffic gridlock in the city reached a point in 1995 where motorists were stranded for hours, so many kept a portable urinal in their cars known as the Comfort 100.

"There were times when you could get stuck for four or five hours if the combination was wrong; salary day at the end of the month with heavy rain and construction," said Somkiat Chatromyen 45, a department manager at World Knitting Industries Co. "Traffic has provided plenty of bad experiences."

Thaksin, when he was deputy prime minister in charge of traffic planning in 1997, pledged to unravel Bangkok's gridlock in six months. He resigned before he could solve the problem.

The new subway line isn't expected to solve the gridlock problem overnight. Thaksin's government plans to spend another 460 billion baht (US$11.3 billion) in the next six years to add another 250 kilometres of subway, elevated light rail and commuter trains.

"To really make a difference we would need an extensive commuter network," said Steve Barth, director at MVA (Thailand) Ltd, a traffic management consultant. "Bangkok probably needs 300 kilometres of rail network."

Car, buses and motorcycles in Bangkok at the end of December had risen 18 per cent to 5.34 million vehicles from 2000, a year after the city's first mass transit system, the elevated train opened.

The new subway system was built by Mass Rapid Transit Authority and uses coaches sold by Siemens AG Bangkok Metro Co, a unit of Ch Karnchang Pcl, Thailand's No 2 construction company, won a 25-year contract to operate the system.

The company will sell tickets at 10 baht (24 US cents) a trip regardless of the travelling distance in the first month of operation. The fares will be raised to between 12 baht (29 US cents) and 31 baht (US$7.57) in August.

(China Daily 07/05/2004 page12)