Commuters offloaded as MRT-3 suffers 11th tech glitch for the week

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

A southbound train of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) unloaded its passengers between Cubao and GMA Kamuning stations on Thursday morning.

The MRT-3’s service report showed the train stopped at 7:39 a.m. due to a failure in its automatic train protection (ATP).

This is the first occasion that a train stopped due to ATP failure.

A railway technical website described ATP as a type of a train protection system or control system that checks the train’s speed to ensure that it is traveling within the permitted pace and help avoid collision since some varieties could activate an emergency brake to halt a train.

MRT-3 operations has resumed by 8:00 a.m. with 17 trains running.

But 18 minutes later, the MRT-3 suffered its 11th recorded mechanical glitch for the week.

A train unloaded its passengers at Buendia station around 8:18 a.m. due to “train failures,” the MRT-3 service report said.

MRT-3 resumed operations by 9 a.m. with 17 trains functioning.   /kga