LRTA: No more ticket sellers at LRT-2 stations, tickets only from vending machines
MANILA, Philippines — Passengers of the Light Rail Transit-2 (LRT-2) can now only get their tickets at vending machines after station tellers have been stopped from selling train tickets at the line’s stations to control the transmission of the coronavirus disease, the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) said Wednesday.
“Sa linya po, lately ho, two weeks ago, we started the procedure, hindi na kami nagbebenta ng ticket using teller namin. Sa Line 2 wala ng teller na nagbebenta ng ticket. Ang ginagamit ay ticket vending machine,” LRTA spokesman Hernando Cabrera said during an online Lido forum when asked about updates on LRT-2 during quarantine.
(For our line, lately, in the past two weeks, we will not sell tickets using tellers. For Line 2, no tellers will sell tickets. We will be using a ticket vending machine instead.)
When asked if station tellers will lose their jobs, Cabrera said the employees will instead be assisting passengers in using the vending machines.
“They will only assist only those who are first-time users and if they need assistance. They will not come into contact with passengers, they will not hold money or tickets. They will wear face shields and gloves,” the LRTA official said.
Single-journey tickets are also being disinfected to ensure that the virus will not infect passengers, Cabrera said.
“‘Yung single journey ticket, ginagamit na tingi tingi na ticket, iniisolate din po namin sila. Pagdating ng gabi, kina-quarantine namin yung single journey tickets for 72 hours, kasi yun lang life span ng virus, bago i-re-encode at ibalik sa circulation,” he said.
(The single journey tickets, we isolated it. During night time, they are under quarantine for 72 hours before reencoding it and returning to circulation because of the life span of the virus.)
He noted that they use ultraviolet light to disinfect the single-journey tickets.
Meanwhile, Cabrera assured the public that the LRT-2 will not be hiking its fares despite the decrease in ridership.
“Kahit nalulugi tayo in terms of ridership, walang pinaguusapang fare increase, wala hong naka-table na usapang ganyan,” he said.
(Even if we are experiencing losses in terms of ridership, we are not planning to increase fares. There are no talks about that.)
Currently, the LRT-2 is serving a maximum of 160 passengers to promote social distancing inside trains, Cabrera said. This is lower than 1,060 passengers per train in LRT-2 recorded before the quarantine was enforced, he added.
