Transit links planned within new Siriraj Hospital building
A new 15-storey building at Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital will house transfer stations for two mass-transit lines by 2026, Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said on Thursday.
Arkhom was witnessing the signing of a space-sharing agreement by executives of the hospital, State Railway of Thailand (SRT) and Mass Rapid Transit Authority (MRTA).
“These two stations – both to be named Siriraj Station to avoid confusion – are the country’s first train stations that combine transport systems into a medical facility to create greater convenience and ease traffic congestion around the hospital,” the minister said.
Siriraj Station will occupy the lower two storeys of the new hospital building that will arise on an SRT riverside property.
It will be part of a 5.8-kilometre SRT Light Red Line extension from Taling Chan and the MRTA Orange Line from Bang Khunnon to Min Buri.
“The SRT station will go to bidding later this year with construction to start early next year so it can open for service in 2023,” Arkhom said. “The MRTA station will open in 2026, but the hospital building will be finished before then.”
Dr Prasit Watanapa, dean of Mahidol University's Faculty of Medicine at Siriraj Hospital, said the building would cost Bt2 billion and an environmental impact assessment was already underway. Construction would take about three years.
Prasit said the train stations would be a boon to people visiting the hospital, which is routinely surrounded by traffic jams.
It gets 8,000-10,000 visitors a day, mostly outpatients, and the number is likely to increase, he said.