BTS ‘Ghost Station’ Opens After Charging Fare for 22 Years

Prachachat file photo.

BANGKOK — The city of Bangkok on Monday welcomed a new skytrain station on Sathorn Road – one of the “ghost stations” which have been included in the fare since 1999 but never actually built.

Saint Louis Station, named so for a Catholic church and a hospital in the area, will serve commuters traveling between Chong Nonsi and Surasak. It was originally named Suksa Witthaya, after a local school that no longer operates today.

Other prominent venues in the vicinity of BTS Saint Louis include the Myanmar Embassy, Bangrak Hospital, and the Apostolic Nunciature Embassy of the Holy See.

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Saint Louis was one of the two “ghost stations” in the BTS system map, the other being the Sena Ruam station, which was meant to separate Ari from Saphan Kwai. There is no information when Sena Ruam will be built.

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BTS initially insisted that its fare was calculated on distance and not number of stations, but an audit by the Office of the Ombudsman in May 2020 confirmed that commuters were indeed charged for passing through those two non-existent stations for years.

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