Rail

A STATE-RUN think tank on Wednesday recommended a fare hike of up to P20 for Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 to minimize the government’s multibillion-peso subsidy.

STATE-RUN Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) has pushed back to next year the completion of the project linking the country’s existing railways due to delays in construction. The LRTA said the EDSA loop or the connection of Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT 1) and Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT 3) will be closed…

(Special to the BusinessMirror) The contract to finance and implement the construction of a mass-transit line along Edsa, the Philippines’ busiest thoroughfare, was drawn up on August 8, 1997, between the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC).

An alliance of trade unions over the weekend urged the Aquino administration to reconsider its proposal to raise Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) fares starting October, calling the move “harsh and unfair to minimum wage earners and other workers with fixed salaries.” “We consider the contemplated fare increases unreasonable and unnecessary,…

The government could mount a rescue on the cash-strapped Manila Metro Rail Transit System (MRT) by acquiring its private partner’s equity share or project assets along with the unsecured shares of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) in it to maintain a cheap mode of transportation…

MANILA, Philippines – A commuter regularly taking the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) will receive a fare subsidy from the government to the tune of P23,850 next year, according to a lawmaker.

GOOD news for the commuters of the country’s mass rail systems: the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has deferred the implementation of the planned fare hike to November. ”The fare hike for MRT [Metro Rail Transit] and LRT [Light Rail Transit] may not happen this month,” Dante Velasco, undersecretary for Public Information of DOTC…

THE GOVERNMENT should take “out of the box” steps to lower subsidies given to the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) line on Edsa, which costs over P5 billion a year in taxpayers’ money.

MANILA, Philippines – We would like to call your attention on the “inaccuracies of facts” contained in the column of Federico D. Pascual entitled “MRT Riders Also Pay for Cost of Corruption” that appeared in the Philippine STAR last August 12, 2010. It is disturbing that there is a lot of misinformation and baseless innuendos…

The critical role that a working mass transit plays in urban development is obvious. A working mass transit system is one that can get a commuter to their point of exit within 30 minutes from entry into the system’s gates. Our MRT / LRT systems currently fail this test during rush hours what with the…

BALANCING ACT: The plan to raise the fare in the light rail transit lines in Metro Manila is a tough balancing act for the Aquino administration seeking to cut losses without overburdening an estimated 750,000 daily commuters.

If less intervention in the ongoing PAL dispute is the norm for the government, it must take a more proactive and interventionist role in the case of the other transport problems it is now facing—the rate increases for Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 and South Luzon Expressway (Slex). In the case of MRT 3, perhaps…

A commuter group has called on Transportation and Communications Secretary Jose de Jesus to speed up the agency’s collection efforts against Metro Rail Transit’s (MRT) private contractors first before coming up with a fare increase on the said mass transit line. Elvira Medina, president of the National Council for Commuter Protection (NCCP), said it would…

PLANNED FARE HIKES for Metro Manila’s three light rail systems could take effect next month, the Transportation department yesterday said.

Senator Ralph Recto on Wednesday sought a probe on plans to hike the fares in Metro Rail Transit 3 and in the routes of the Light Rail Transit.

THE HEADS of both the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the Metro Rail Transit MRT) are talking about increasing their fares because the government is losing money in subsidizing their operations. The government pays P40 for every rail passenger in addition to the fare he pays, they said. This subsidy comes from the taxes paid…

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino yesterday admitted an “inevitable” increase in fares of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), citing the inability of the government to sustain the subsidy due to the high cost of its operations.

THE Aquino administration plans to increase the fares in the country’s mass rail systems, citing higher operational expense and subsidies from the government. “I think it is time for the fares to go up. [But] there will be a lot of factors to be considered.

THE DEPARTMENT of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) wants to privatize the operations of three commuter rail systems in Metro Manila in one to two years by bidding out concession contracts similar to those covering tollways.

PRESIDENT Gloria Arroyo has ordered state-run National Development Co. to acquire the shares of two state banks in Metro Rail Transit Corp. worth $750 million to speed up the government’s takeover of the 17-kilometer MRT-3 line.

MANILA, Philippines – May we refer to the column of Mr. Babe Romualdez in the 10 September 2009 issue of The Philippine STAR, particularly to his reference to the MRT as “a messy deal when it was closed in the 1990s under a built-operate-transfer scheme during the time of FVR, with the deal so lopsided…

STATE-OWNED Philippine National Railways (PNR) plans to privatize the operation and maintenance of the Caloocan to Alabang rail system and its Bicol line.

MANILA, Philippines – The government may opt to secure a 100-percent stake in the once-privately held Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC) after it has already acquired a 75-percent controlling stake through state-owned banks Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and the Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank), a Finance official has said.

DBP, Landbank acquire 75% MRTC stake MANILA, Philippines—The government has completed the acquisition of a 75-percent stake in Metro Railway Transit 3 through state-owned lenders Development Bank of the Philippines and Land Bank of the Philippines in a deal worth about $800 million.

MANILA, Philippines – The government is looking at building one grand central station in the North to make it more convenient for commuters to use the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), one of the contractors of the project said.

More than 10 years since the Skyway opened in the late 90s, the second segment of the Skyway that will connect Bicutan to Alabang started this year. This was the original design of the Skyway system to connect Makati to Alabang, which is the segment with the heaviest volume of vehicles during rush hour. Given…

President Arroyo says economy and people of Bicol will benefit from this very positive development.