MANILA, Philippines — The Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT 1) will implement a new temporary passenger traffic scheme at select stations for the first months of 2020.
This is to make way for the construction of the Unified Grand Central Station, which will connect the systems of LRT 1, Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT 3) and MRT 7.
From Jan. 4 to March 31, 2020, northbound passengers will have to disembark at the Monumento and Balintawak Stations as the train will no longer reach Roosevelt Station.
Passengers with Roosevelt station as their stop may take the Baclaran-to-Balintawak circuit, where a special shuttle train will arrive every 10 minutes during peak hours to exclusively transport passengers to the Roosevelt Station.
The same shuttle will pick up passengers from the Roosevelt Station and bring them to the Balintawak Station.
Meanwhile, the Baclaran-to-Monumento circuit will help address the heavy passenger volume at the Monumento Station, especially during peak hours.
The LRMC will deploy additional crowd marshals and safety teams as well as put up directional signs in the stations to inform passengers of the new passenger traffic scheme.
LRMC chief operating officer Enrico Benipayo assures that other stations along the LRT 1 will not be affected by the construction of the common station.
“We want to ensure normal operations in all twenty stations of our existing line while the construction of the common station is ongoing that’s why we have this temporary passenger traffic scheme,” Benipayo said in a statement.
“We will also add signage inside the trains for passengers to easily identify if the last stop of the train is either Monumento or Balintawak,” he added.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) aims to open the country’s largest railway station that will serve as a centralized hub for four railway lines, including the planned Metro Manila subway, by late 2020.
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/atm