MRT down to 6 trains during Tuesday morning rush hour

Worn-out electrical components again caused a breakdown of a Metro Rail Transit 3 train resulting in only six trains running during the rush hour Tuesday morning, Feb. 20, 2018. INQUIRER FILE / EDWIN BACASMAS

Passengers of the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT 3) just can’t seem to get a break, as one of the trains again conked out early Tuesday morning, only an hour since the train line opened service.

In an advisory, the MRT 3 management said that a southbound train broke down at 6:32 a.m. between Ortigas and Shaw Boulevard stations due to an electrical failure in its braking system.

It added that one reason for such failure was worn-out electrical subcomponents.

The incident forced the evacuation of passengers to Ortigas and brought down to just six the number of operational trains on a morning rush hour.

When it took over as the MRT’s interim maintenance provider, the Department of Transportation said there should ideally be 12 to 15 trains in operation at any given time. But because this has not been met over the last few weeks, the target has already been lowered to just 10 to 12 trains.

Tuesday’s passenger unloading comes just a day after thousands of MRT 3 riders were inconvenienced twice by a power supply failure that hit the country’s busiest train system.

The MRT 3’s continued decline has resulted in a steady drop in the number of passengers it serves daily.

On Monday, only more than 207,000 riders were accommodated by the average of seven trains that were deployed. This is a significant drop from last year’s daily average of 463,000 passengers. /cbb