500 MRT 3 passengers offloaded due to power glitch

MANILA, Philippines — Another power glitch forced hundreds of passengers to walk on the tracks of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 on Wednesday, marking the 19th glitch since January.

At 10:17 a.m., the MRT 3 management noted a power supply problem between Ayala and Taft Avenue stations, prompting the off-loading of 500 passengers between the northboard interstations of Magallanes and Ayala eight minutes later.

MRT 3 engineers brushed aside worries that it was unsafe to make passengers walk on the tracks amid a power supply issue, since the train’s power was coursed via the overhead catenary cables (OCC).

By 10:35 a.m., power had been restored and train operations returned to normal.

Nearly a month ago, half of the train line’s operations had to be shut down for 10 hours after the OCC system at Guadalupe station  snapped, cutting off power. —Krixia Subingsubing