DOTr’s Dizon: 200 additional buses on busway for Edsa rehab

A public utility bus speeds along the Edsa busway. The Department of Transportation plans to add up to 200 more buses to the busway ahead of the scheduled rehabilitation of the highway. — Inquirer file photo

MANILA, Philippines — Around 100 to 200 buses will be added to the Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (Edsa) busway amid the rebuilding of one of the country’s major thoroughfares, according to Department of Transport Secretary Vince Dizon on Wednesday.

Dizon said that this aims to provide relief to commuters in the coming months.

“We added almost 100 [buses] in the busway, and we have plans to add 100 to 200 more in the coming months to provide alternatives to our constituents so that they don’t need to use their personal cars for a while,” Dizon said in Filipino during an interview with Teleradyo 630.

READ: Rehabilitation of Edsa to begin in middle of June, says Dizon

Dizon on Tuesday said that the rebuilding of Edsa will start in mid-June since it has been 45 years since the highway was renovated. Dizon also said that he proposed the opening of certain segments of the Skyway for free.

Dizon then assured the commuters that Edsa busway will not be removed during the time the thoroughfare undergoes rehabilitation.

“I made sure that this is open and it will continue its operations even when Edsa undergoes rebuilding,” he added.

When asked if the transport agency has plans to extend the operating hours of the train stations in the metro, Dizon said that they will study whether they can extend the morning operations for 30 minutes to one hour.

“We will discuss it, but we have done all of these in preparation for this [rehabilitation],” Dizon noted.

READ: Longer operations for MRT 3 on weekdays starting March 24

Dizon earlier ordered the extension of the operations of the Metro Rail Transit 3 by an hour, effective last March 24. More trains were also previously deployed in the MRT 3. /das/abc