MANILA, Philippines — The maintenance provider of Metro Rail Transit-3 (MRT-3) is eyeing to reduce train capacity to 10 trains per day, depending on the availability of depot personnel, the Department of Transportation said Thursday.
“Currently, bilang ng tren na nilalabas natin nasa 16 to 19 trains per day. ‘Yung ibababa natin base sa Sumitomo, hindi pa ito final, would be from 10 to 12 trains by Monday. Hindi pa siya final dahil sa tinitingnan ng Sumitomo kung ilan ba yung magiging final na number ng personnel nila sa depot,” Transportation Undersecretary for Rails Timothy John Bathan announced in a online press conference about updates on MRT-3 operations.
(Currently, the number of trains deployed are at 16 to 19 trains per day. We will reduce it based on Sumitomo’s assessment, but this is not final, it would be from 10 to 12 trains by Monday. This is not final because Sumitomo is still assessing the number of its personnel in the depot.)
The plan to reduce the number of trains came after 127 out of 1,700 depot personnel tested positive of COVID-19, the DOTr said.
Of the total number, 124 are from Sumitomo-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries-TES Philippines, MRT-3 maintenance provider, it added.
MRT-3 director for operations Michael Capati said MRT-3 train schedule will not be affected by the proposed reduction of train availability.
“Wala pong epekto ang operation time natin, pareho lang po yan. Ang maaapektuhan ang train availability just in case lang po mag-assess ang provider,” Capati said during the online press conference.
(It has no effect on operation time, it is still the same. What will be affected is the train availability just in case the provider will assess it.)
Currently, MRT-3’s first trip is scheduled at 5:30 a.m. during the general community quarantine, it said. The last trip for North Avenue is at 9:10 p.m. while the last trip for Taft Avenue is at 10:11 p.m.
Capati also assured the public that only depot personnel who tested negative for the novel coronavirus will be reporting for work. He added that they enforced strict physical distancing and fixed the ventilation at the depot to prevent the spread of COVID-19.