The Mega Victory Monument Metro Bus Terminal.

[thaitransit]

Last weekend I was passing though Victory Monument as I often do for various reasons and I realized that I had never really taken a proper set of bus transport images at this terminal before. So I decided to spend a couple of hours taking bus photos at Victory Monument and give it a much deserved place on my website.

A Little Background on the Victory Monument bus terminal.

Victory Monument was never designed as a bus terminal when first built but was actually a large traffic circle with a major war memorial in the centre. Today it is only one of a handful of remaining traffic circles in Bangkok. Most of them are traffic light controlled and do not operate like a western style roundabout.

Due to its large open area and close proximity to the inner city it was the perfect place for large numbers of urban bus routes to start at or pass though. Since WW2 Victory Monument has been at the heart of the Bangkok mass transport bus system. There are over 100 different bus routes operating though Victory monument, most on a high frequency basis. In more recent times the BTS provides a north south link though the Victory monument bus terminal making it even more important. At times around 40 – 50 buses a minute pass though this bus terminal.

However it is a rather poorly laid out bus terminal with very little information for passengers as to where the buses depart from within the terminal. Also the buses tend to stop in random locations resulting in traffic delays and making it harder to know where to wait for the bus. There can be rows of buses 4 deep in parts of the terminal forcing passengers to walk around the other buses to find their bus.

Another big problem with Victory Monument bus terminal is that it’s not a bus only area. This means that the terminal also has to deal with large volumes of through mixed traffic on 2 major roads. This often results in long delays entering and exiting the terminals and at peak times total gridlock within the terminal. This is something that will have to be fixed up in future years if the terminal is to cope with ever increasing numbers of passengers. The vast majority of bus passengers transfer to other buses at Victory Monument.

The bus terminal at Victory Monument it broken up into 4 sections these sections are based on the general direction of travel upon leaving the terminal and not the final destination of the buses.

Buses that head north along Phahon Yothin Road depart from the North – West side of the terminal.

Buses that head south along Phaya Thai Road depart from the South – East side of the terminal.

Buses that head west along Ratchawithi Road depart from the South – West side of the terminal.

Buses that head east along Ratchawithi Road depart from the North – East side of the terminal. Also bus Route 551 to Suvarnabhumi Airport departs from this section of the terminal.

Located under the expressway to the north of Victory Monument is a very small but crowded expressway van terminal with high frequency van services to a wide range of outer suburban locations such as Pak Kret, Rama 2, Rangsit. Unlike the much larger bus terminal the services are well marked albeit in Thai language and each route has a queuing area. Most of these privately operated van service operate on a continuous shuttle basis from around 6am to 11pm 7 days a week. Also lower frequency intercity Van services depart from this terminal but the passengers wait inside the Van instead of queuing up outside.

2. This is a general view of the Van terminal looking east towards the passenger waiting area. The empty space on the right is the stop for the Rama 2 expressway Van service.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l7.../P1030132a.jpg

12. This is a shot of a Route 8 bus as it was departing the bus terminal with a new Chinese made Route 29 bus following. Bus number 39 – 121. Bus type old merc. This route seems to have borrowed buses from other routes hence the non matching bus numbers.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l7.../P1030146a.jpg

13. This is a shot of a Route 29: Hualamphong – Thammasat Rangsit bus. Bus number 29 – 22. Bus type Golden Dragon. Taken from footbridge at Victory monument. Note: this bus is very new as its still on red temporary number plates.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l7.../P1030147a.jpg

15. This is a general view of the North West section of the Victory Monument bus terminal. This time with a typical line up of buses waiting to unload and load passengers. Also in this image there are two route 26 buses.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l7.../P1030149a.jpg

21. This is a shot of a Route 539: Victory Monument – Om Yai bus. Taken on its final approached into Victory Monument. Bus number 539 – 19. Bus type Golden Dragon.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l7.../P1030157a.jpg

24. This is a short movie of various buses arriving at Victory Monument. Note how a Route 92 bus is blocking off access to the terminal forcing the other buses to push past. Also some of the buses operate with there doors wide open with passengers onboard. Also count how many buses went past in under 2 mins on a Saturday afternoon.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ0vX7eNfho[/youtube]

27. This is a view of 4 different North East section buses on the approach Routes 551, 528, 187 and 69. Taken looking west from the footbridge.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l7.../P1030164a.jpg

30. This is a shot of a Route 92: Klong Tan – Victory Monument Bus. Taken as it was blocking off the entire access from the north of Victory Monument due to terminal congestion. Bus number 92 – 144. Bus type unknown.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l7.../P1030203a.jpg

31. This is an image of a Metro Bus Route 4: Southern Bus Terminal to Kheha Rom Klao. Taken as it was approaching Victory monument. Bus number unknown. Bus type unknown Chinese manufacturer. Note this service operates as a flat fare of 30 baht regardless of distance with no ticket lady on board. In addition passengers are meant to enter via the front door only unlike 99.9% of other Thai buses.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l7.../P1030204a.jpg

39. This is a short movie of buses passing though the South East section of Victory Monument. Note the amount of buses that pass by in less than 2 mins. Also note the green Merc mini bus with passengers standing on the steps as it arrives at Victory Monument. Also the general loading and unloading of passengers can be seen.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-YVQFjiYAU[/youtube]

50. This is a shot of two Route 542: Victory Monument – Pink Lao – Wong Wien Yai (Loop service). Bus numbers 542 -1 and 542 – 4. Bus type unknown. Taken as they were waiting to enter the South East terminal.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l7.../P1030173a.jpg

64. This is an image of the BTS train passing over a number of buses in the North East section of the Victory Monument bus terminal.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l7.../P1030236a.jpg

Now for something different.

65. This is a short movie showing the overcrowding on the BTS train heading south from Victory Monument to Onnut on a Saturday afternoon. At least when this train is full like this there are plenty of things to hold onto unlike in Melbourne’s metro trains.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eOmwS8yXnQ

If you would like to see many more photos from around the Victory Monument Bus Terminal please visit:

http://thaitransit.blogspot.com/2008...metro-bus.html

I hope you find the pictures and vehicles shown to be of interest if you view this please post some comments and feelings about the pictures.

[dmackay]

Great photos enjoyed them thanks

[Ian]

I agree with dmackay, but you can post photos direct on to this site, where members can view them without having to use links.

cheers

Ian

[thaitransit]

How does one display the images? as i used the international standard [img][/img] code to show the image when i posted it but it turn them all to links and i could not work out why.

If one lets me know how its done on this site i will edit the topic and post others. Can Youtube videos be embeds ie displayed on this forum?

[Ian]

thaitransit

If you go to Members Notice Board, there is a item by Andy (Administrator) Giving all information for up-loading photos

Cheers

Ian

[thaitransit]

After reading that topic for very odd reasons i cant post any pictures directly online. Uploading to a separate forum only gallery is very time consuming for me as I use slow GPRS. so i wont post any further images online.

This is the 1st forum i have come across that blocks the IMG tag from displaying images.

This is a real shame as i had hoped to share lots of bus images on this site. I may post direct links to my own website if that interests people on here at least the can be viewed directly.