New coaches seen to curb MRT’s long lines, waiting time

This is possible, but not without some more training. One of MRT’s engineers told a Senate hearing on Monday that the arrival of 48 new light rail vehicles (LRV), may be able to solve these problems.

During the hearing of the Senate committee on public services, MRT Engineer Misael Narca said that the three-minute waiting time of passengers would be reduced to two and half minutes when the new LRVs start arriving.

“Sa ngayon po, tatlong minuto po ang ating headway. Ito ‘yung operational headway na kung saan maghihintay po ‘yung mga pasahero, magiging two and half minutes na lang po…” Narca said.

(Right now, passengers wait for trains for three minutes. But it can be reduced to just two and half minutes.)

“So ibig sabihin ‘yung pila ngayon ay matutugunan ‘pag dumating na itong mga bagon na ito,” he said.

(This means that the problem on long queues can be addressed when the new coaches arrive.)

Narca said that with the new LRVs, the capacity of passengers that can be accommodated by the trains would also increase by 66 percent from the current 500,000 a day.

“Sa ngayon po, ang capacity natin ay 23,000 passengers per hour per direction. ‘Pag dumating ‘yung mga bagon na hinihintay natin, tataas po ito ng 37,824 passengers per hour per direction,” he pointed out.

(Right now, the capacity of trains is at 23,000 passengers per hour per direction. When the new coaches arrive, we can raise it to 37,824 passengers per hour per direction.)

Narca said that aside from buying new coaches, the MRT management also plans to purchase security fence which would cost P75 million.

“Sa ngayon po may mga tao pong tumatawid po sa ating riles at ito po ay nagdudulot din ng aksidente. So para po ito maiwasan, ito po ang ating proposal lagyan ng security fence,” he said.

(There also people who close the railways, and this leads to accidents. To prevent this, we propose the placement of security fences.)

Among the proposed projects to improve the situation of the MRT passengers are the upgrading of escalators and elevators, construction of North Avenue footbridge for the long line of passengers, setting up of public Wi-Fi and the passenger information system.

Narca said that through the passenger information system, the people could see in a platform the estimated arrivals of the coaches and other announcements.

He said the total cost of the proposed rehabilitation projects was P6.8 billion.

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