ความเหลื่อมล้ำของการเข้าถึงบริการรถเมล์สาธารณะ กรณีศึกษารถไฟฟ้าในเขตกรุงเทพมหานคร

บทคัดย่อ

This study examines the potentiality of passengers in the access to electrified train services against their current incomes across the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. This is a qualitative research based completely on secondary data. Review of the literature shows that when comparing the work periods to earn a city train ticket in many countries, Thai workers spend the longest time on their work to obtain a ticket. Moreover, the findings also indicate that electrified train service fares adjusted by purchasing power parity (PPP) are extremely high compared with other countries. This rate is not balanced with the income of most Bangkok people, leading to unaffordability in purchasing electrified train tickets and transport inequality. In order to control fares of city train services, a price ceiling needs to be set based on the income of most Bangkok people to control the maximum ticket prices in a period of time. Moreover, for a short journey, the fares of these services must be adjusted for cheaper prices. The lack of an integration mechanism is the factor causing expensive tickets. Nonetheless, the Thailand Transport Portal should push the mass transit providers to create and develop integrations of mass transits. In addition, because of high costs of train services, bus services served five times the number of trips than city train services and charged lower fares, which should be considered for development and investment to enhance the affordability and accessibility of public transport. Consequently, the traffic congestion crisis might be relieved due to an increase of public transport use. If all recommendations are applied and electric train fares are adjusted to reasonable prices, more people will be able to access public transport, leading to decreased transport inequality across this area.