Bad news for anyone trying to hustle the system and hand off items without passing through the gates at the BTS. That convenient little loophole is no more after June 15.

 

The BTS Skytrain recently announced that it will no longer allow commuters to receive or send items outside their ticket-fare gates. 

 

“We are watching you,” the BTS wrote in its announcement. “If you want to make any delivery or exchange any items, you need to do it when both of you are on the same side of the gate.” 

 

Many were perplexed by the new policy, and some questioned the motives behind it.

 

“If people can deliver items this way, what’s the harm in that? Will they hinder other passengers trying to get past the gate? Will they get hit by the skytrain? Will they get an electric shock? Or is it that the BTS Skytrain can’t reap profits from us,” Facebook user Akkaraphol Yanachai Chommouk wrote in the comments to the post. 

 

“People usually hand items at the station’s fence, not from the ticket fare gate,” wrote Facebook user Xkp Surattakul. “Saying that people who pass items at the fence will get in the way of other passengers prove how depraved your logic is.” 

 

The BTS has periodically courted controversy. It has charged fees for ghost stations, and past price hikes have led critics to point out that the fares don’t match local salaries. The long-promised Mangmoom card, which would allow riders to use just one card for the ARL, BTS, and MRT, still has not materialized, and many stations remain inaccessible for people with disabilities.