Despite BTS's claims that it is providing a new "service" to passengers, many people would conclude that it's more a matter of milking every last baht out of trapped Skytrain passengers by selling their peace and quiet to advertisers. As if Bangkok were not polluted enough by noise as it is. BTS earlier installed even louder TV screens on every platform to blast out advertisements. It pasted advertisement posters on walls, columns and more. So it was just a matter of time before the screens appeared in the carriages.

Without mentioning the real bottom line, BTS chose to propagate its own theory to justify the move by claiming that most passengers in fact enjoy the feature and would be "annoyed" if the ads were too quiet. The result, the company insists, is based on two surveys - commissioned by no less than BTS itself.

Readers must judge for themselves how this differs from a hypothetical scenario in which a US tobacco giant presents its own surveys to "prove" that people prefer having toxic chemicals in their cigarettes if it means they are tastier and more addictive. While BTS claims to be providing a new "service", one wonders why the company doesn't install something truly useful, such as toilets, at its hi-tech stations. Perhaps BTS truly believes that passengers can't live without loud noise invading their ears in the form of advertisements every time they board the train, but they are happy to wait to use the toilet.

When it means cutting costs, BTS is not shy about forbidding its own "valued customers" from drinking and eating inside the train or on its platforms. One could be misled into believing that this policy is based on sanitary concerns, though in fact it is more likely that the company simply does not want to hire more janitors to clean up after passengers. This is akin to an international fast-food chain trying to teach its customers to clean up after themselves by making them feel it is not polite to leave the remains of their meals on their tables. In fact, all these companies have done is relegate some of the work, without having to pay, to their valued customers. They even make the customers feel good about it in the process. When the garbage is in the form of noise pollution, BTS has no qualms about claiming that its customers like it that way. They dump it onto the public and dare to call it a new service.

Granted, there are probably some Thais out there who truly like the loud ads inside the train. They may insist they have the right to be bombarded by these ads and enjoy them immensely, no matter how noisy protesters like the People Who Love Quiet Club insist otherwise.

Then again, one must remember that the Skytrain is, first and foremost, a mass transportation system. Its very reason for existing is to enable people to get from point A to B speedily and safely. But let's pause and consider what BTS, if it were really a socially responsible outfit, would do in response to complaints that the noise level inside its carriages exacerbated Bangkok's already high noise-pollution level.

Would they consult with noise-pollution and medical experts about the possible long-term impairment of their passenger's ears and the effect on passengers' states of mind? Or would they exploit the widespread and near absolute lack of awareness among Thais about the risk of noise pollution and permanent hearing damage - and make a few baht along the way?

The answer seems clear enough.

Out of respect to the people who love to blast away at their eardrums with an I-Pod or other means, BTS should consider setting up a new business called "noise room", where their "valued customers" could sate their noise addictions by listening to loud ads in an enclosed compartment. This would spare those of us who dislike and are concerned about noise and visual pollution.

Now, while this writer believes that the real source of BTS's decision to blare these ads is greed, it is also true that so long as civic groups, such as the anti-noise People Who Love Quiet Club, led by the well-known potter Panchalie Sathirasa, fail to muster real opposition, corporations like BTS will simply ignore complaints. If the gains from TV advertisements are offset by the threat of serious losses, companies like BTS might rethink, however.

The anti-noise group vowed to stage a demonstration two months ago. Alas, true to their beliefs, the group, which numbered about 100 artists, writers, journalists, academics and white-collar workers, has been rather quiet.

Such quietude will only embolden BTS to get noisier and become more socially irresponsible.

Pravit Rojanaphruk