BANGKOK— After decades of debate, delay and broken promises, Bangkok will soon offer commuters an alternative to its traffic-clogged streets. Beginning in November, Sky Train — a privately funded mass-transit railway — begins whisking travelers along 23.5 kilometers (14.5 miles) of track high above the congestion and its syrupy brown pollution. For the many commuters who rise well before dawn to arrive at work hours later, the rail system promises a new era of mobility. And for Bangkok, the project ends the city's distinction as one of the few populous national capitals without a mass transit system. The venture will likely serve as a crucial test of a fast-evolving trend toward huge privately funded infrastructure projects.

As many governments no longer have the will or the funds to provide many public services, they are relying on the private sector to take up the slack. The Sky Train faces a prolonged period of testing for financial feasibility and public acceptance. Critics say that the train is too expensive for the average citizen and fails to meet the needs of the handicapped traveler. But Kasame Chatikavanij, chairman of Bangkok Mass Transit System PCL, the consortium building the rail line, said it is most concerned with attracting enough wealthier riders who can pay the fares and produce a profit for investors. "A lot of people are saying they will get their driver to drop them off at a station nearby home and then meet them later at the office,"

Mr. Kasame said. "Those people who complain about the fare are still free to ride the bus." But anyone wishing to move rapidly through the city has no choice but to board the train. Bangkok's only other commuter train project, a subway that is largely government financed, has been slowed by fights over land acquisition and is not expected to begin operation until 2002. As one of the world's first for-profit, privately financed urban mass transit railways, Sky Train is paving the way for other ventures. A privately financed spur of Manila's mass transit system begins operation next year, while Kaohsiung in Taiwan and several cities in India are considering a similar formula. Sky Train will travel along two lines, with 26 stations, and is expected to carry more than 500,000 people per day.

The consortium holds a 30-year concession and plans to list shares soon after the trains begin running. Bangkok Mass Transit System is majority owned by Tanayong Public Co., a listed Thai property developer that was badly hit by the economic crisis. Smaller shareholders include the World Bank's International Finance Corp. and Italian-Thai Development PCL, one of the largest Thai construction companies. Mr. Kasame insists that the 55 billion baht ($1.43 billion) project will deliver quality to Bangkok riders at virtually no cost to Thai taxpayers and that it will succeed where others have failed. "We did not go cheap," he said, pointing to the

bright yellow Porsche AG-designed bucket seats for passengers in the computer controlled trains that were custom-built in Germany by Siemens AG. "This project may look good on paper, but when you implement it, there are so many obstacles," Mr. Kasame said, adding that Sky Train itself is two years late and three times over budget. Most prominent among Bangkok's failed mass transit projects is an elevated road and rail system conceived by the Hong Kong developer Gordon Wu in the early 1990s. Abandoned last year after almost continuous disputes with government officials, hundreds of half-completed pilings, now dubbed Stonehenge of Bangkok, still loom over much of the project's intended route. But Narong Patibatsarakich, a Thai senator, experienced the Sky Train's pitfalls on a test ride with a group of handicapped travelers.

The railway promises a 20-minute trip across Bangkok, but Mr. Narong said it took an additional half an hour to assist the disabled riders up the stairs to the platform. "With no elevators or escalators going up from the street, people in wheelchairs had to be carried up the stairs backwards," Mr. Narong said. Some of the elevated stations are four floors above street level and accessible only by narrow, steep stairways. Private Funding Propels Bangkok's New Sky Train Published: August 25, 1999 * Sign In to E-Mail * Print * Single-Page (Page 2 of 2) "Our city's first mass transit should not just benefit the wealthy and healthy, but also the disabled, the pregnant and the children," Mr. Narong said. He is skeptical of government promises to pay for elevators for a handful of stations. "We sympathize with handicapped people, but as a private company to pay for something that doesn't make much money is very difficult,"

Mr. Kasame said. "Profits are a distant dream — right now we are just trying to pay interest on our loans." Mr. Kasame said the company's target riders, middle-class Bangkok residents in a hurry, will pay between 15 baht and 60 baht per journey, depending on distance. Public buses, the city's chief form of public transportation, charge a maximum of 12 baht per ride. Takol Ting, managing director of AsiaOil, regularly commutes by car along Sky Train's route. He said such high ticket prices were reasonable only for business travelers. "At 30 baht, Sky Train tickets are priced for first-class travel only," he said. "My family will still travel in the car through the traffic jams. It is much cheaper than buying several Sky Train tickets." Mr. Kasame said that if city residents object to the high fares that are necessary to justify his company's investment, the government should offer a subsidy. Limited subsidies to increase handicapped access and reduce fares, even on privately financed projects, are not an unreasonable demand, development bankers said. "You have to consider not just the poor handicapped and the poor consumers, but also the poor investors," said Arvind Mathur,

senior investment officer at Asian Development Bank. But even if the government brings ticket prices down, many Bangkok residents warn of steep psychological barriers that Thai middle-class passengers must overcome to ride on the train. "When people get successful in the United States they improve their home, in Spain they wear fancy clothes, but in Thailand we buy a car," said Anucha Chansuriya, an executive in the chairman's office of the Charoen Pokphand Group Co. "Cars are a way of life for middle-class Thai people. Walking and public transportation are not." Even if Sky Train cuts his one-hour car commute to a 10-minute rail ride, Mr. Anucha said he would likely continue using his car, noting that he regularly carries a lot of documents with him. "Parking is not expensive in Bangkok," he said. But, he added, "Who knows, maybe the convenience will force a change in Thai middle-class perceptions."