Most public transportation here is subsidized by the government.
The State Railway of Thailand currently operates the SARL, but there are plans to sell this off as they are losing money, and the entire system is way overdue for maintenance. All the rolling stock is at least 30% past it's scheduled maintenance.
Any company which takes this over will raise the fares significantly. Some subsidy might remain for monthly trip tickets/elderly/students (not stored value), thereby allowing airport pax to shoulder the burden.
The 45 baht fare is cheap for 26 Km. A 22 Km journey on the BTS (Mor Chit to Bearing is 57 baht, with the 15 baht kicker).
There have been some significant outages on the SARL recently. The incident on March 21 was a bit disconcerting. There have been other incidents recently, although not quite as bad.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/brea...-30282084.html
This train was not really designed (speed) for its current operating model (capacity). Airport passengers/luggage take up a lot of room, and the frequency does not address commuters.
The platform situation is alarming; amazing there haven't been any incidents yet? (There may have been, but nothing in the news I've seen.) There is not enough room for, nor a switch west of Phaya Thai, while the switch before Phaya Thai wouldn't address to dis/embarking passenger issue. (That was used for the Express.)
I think they will have to implement a queuing system for departing passengers, at Phaya Thai and Makkasan at least, on the ticketing mezzanine level. This would allow arriving passengers to head down/out, and then allow departing passengers to go up to the platform (in a mad rush).
Given the way things operate here, I'd expect SARL service to get a whole lot worse (like tomorrow) before it gets better (in 10 years). That's just the nature here. I do anything to avoid riding on this train now.