Yappofloyd

You are a wise person. For 5 years straight there were announcements that ticket integration would occur "next year", the reality has been that both BTSC and BMCL have not wanted it incorrectly believing that it will reduce their respective income.

Even last year BMCL and the SRT were stating that they would have an intergrated ticket by 2012.

If the MRT ticketing platform is Rabbit ready by Dec 2012 I'll be both surprised and very happy. Anything before that is a bonus.

Yappofloyd

Note sure about that suggestion as I have topped up my store value card twice since 1 May and not been asked to get a Rabbit (so to speak). I may have read that only those with expired stored value cards will obviously have to get a Rabbit which of course makes sense. My 5 yr expiry date on my current card is up in Nov so that seems to me to be the appropriate time unless the MRT platform becomes Rabbit friendly before then in which case I'll switch over earlier.

transpac

Could be, I had to replace two (2) BTS stored value cards in the past few weeks, but I guess those could have reached the five year expiration date as I have had them for a while. Actually I think they were closer to seven years old?

Anyway, I didn't mind moving over to the Rabbit card. (I keep a few spares for visitors - I hate waiting for them to queue for change, and purchase a ticket - so now have four Rabbit cards, two BTS cards and three MRT cards!)

Given that the issuing fee will go up to 150 baht as of 1/1/13 some may find it better to replace their stored value BTS card before then?

I hope the MRT gets integrated sooner rather than later. I liken this to MNP (Mobile Number Portability) which many thought would never get implemented, but it did, so I am hopeful.

readyforchange

Does anyone know when they will integrate the mrt into the Rabbit card?

dsquared37

The last I heard, which was upon introduction, they were expecting a 'few months' delay. There seems to be a decent amount of advertising on BTS but I didn't see any indication of when MRT integration would come online.

readyforchange

i wish we could check the balance of the cards online and even better top them up online too.

CrazyInteg

Just curious, is this possible in other cities around the world? Online top-up would be very handy.

transpac

http://www.rabbitcard.com/en/content...ear-end-2012-0

http://www.rabbitcard.com/en/page/balance-check

Not sure if Carrot Rewards offers balance checking/topping up?

For older BTS cards I think there may have been a method of adding value at ATMs.

We can add value, make payments here via ATM, and even on-line banking, but I have not seen the Rabbit card as an option. I haven't logged in to my Bangkok Bank or SCB on-line accounts in a few weeks, and I really only use the ATM to add value to my pre-paid mobile.


I have noticed several foreigners, ~ 12 or so over the last 30 days, getting blocked at the entrance or exit gates using older style BTS cards, not sure what's up with that? Maybe they just returned to Bangkok and found that their cards had expired. One set of people I observed had to get new Rabbit cards.

readyforchange

Have you used the rabbit rewards? Does it actually work?

BuildingMyBento

Oh, they're gaining ground in Bangkok now? I thought I passed by one somewhere in Nana, but hey, my favorite ones are still those in El Salvador. I'll take nuegado over the matcha flavour any day.

Signing off from this way-OT reply,
TBS

readyforchange

I like those sushi donut things they do, pretty cool concept. They look great, probably disgusting tasting in reality .

ak333

Actually they are pretty good - addicting even.

I really like the concept of the Rabbit card - but I'll wait until the MRT is included to change over.

readyforchange

They should have had a unified system from the get go. Government should have maintained more control over it.

. Its good that they are starting to get their act together.

BuildingMyBento

At least in the MRT when you wait on the customer service queue they'll sell you a token, as opposed to the damned BTS where you have to wait first if you don't have change, then wait to get the single ticket journey (I'm typically only in town for a couple of days at a time), then again as people figure out which side of the BTS ticket has the arrow. Finding out where the best car is to board the train as its advertisement-covered doors trickle out muddled passengers is ever the hoot. Well, at least it's not as bad as joining the mosh pit of a Transjakarta bus.

Also, considering that the MRT uses a token and the BTS a ticket, transferring (or am I missing an integral fact?) becomes as pointless as trying to jog at night on the north side of Sukhumvit between Soi 3 and Soi 15. Well, that's where the extra car lane comes in handy...

transpac

Perhaps? FWIW the MRT does use an RFID ticket for stored-value, that may the integral fact you are missing?

Both systems use RFID technology; there is an RFID chip in the single-journey black MRT token. Using a single RFID card doesn't seem to be a challenge as far as I can determine. I think it is more of a back-room integration issue?


Now finding the right car/door to board can be challenging even for people like me who ride 4 ~ 6 times every day. Nowadays, on the BTS, the middle of the platform is better as this makes it easier to get on the first train at peak times. The first or last cars make for better exits and connections upstairs/downstairs at Siam. Then they throw in a new 4-car CNR set from the Silom line on the Sukhumvit line (weekends only now) to keep us on our toes, or switch an in-bound Silom line set over to the Sukhumvit line before Siam to get that train up to the yard at Mo Chit.