Palace defends ‘reasonable’, ‘timely’ MRT, LRT fare hike
Metro Rail and Light Rail Transit Systems. FILE PHOTOS
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Sunday defended the approved fare increase in the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) starting January 4, 2015, saying that it is “reasonable” and “timely” to cut the government’s subsidy on the train systems.
In an interview with state-run radio dzRB Sunday morning, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the fare hike for the MRT and LRT would enable government to allot more budget for social services.
“Napapanahon nang isagawa ang tama,” said Coloma, referring to matching the train fare to those of airconditioned buses that ply the metropolis. (It’s about time we did what is right.)
“Panahon na rin para itigil ‘yung subsidiyang malaki sa bawat pasahero para ‘yung halagang ‘yon ay mailaan sa mga mahahalagang paglilingkod panlipunan na papakinabangan ng milyon-milyong mga Pilipino,” he added.
(It is about time to stop the huge subsidy for each [MRT and LRT] passenger and use it to fund important social services which will benefit millions of Filipinos.)
Currently, Coloma said, the government shoulders P25 for each LRT passenger and P45 for each MRT rider.
According to him, Filipinos in the Visayas and Mindanao who don’t use the trains are being burdened to contribute to the continued operations of both train systems.
On Saturday, the Department of Transportation and Communications said it would implement a long-delayed fare hike on January 4, 2015.
In the new fare structure, the base fare for the LRT Lines 1 and 2 and the MRT will be standardized to P11. A ticket will already be charged P11 at the station of origin once it is inserted in the turnstile.
An additional P1 will be charged for every kilometer from the station of origin.
Consequently, a single journey ticket from Baclaran station to Roosevelt station, or vice versa, will already cost P30 from the current P20.
LRT 2 passengers will have to shell out P25 from the current P15 for a single journey ticket from Recto station to Santolan station, or vice versa.
Passengers who use stored value tickets for end-to-end trips on the LRT 1 and 2 will get a P1 discount. They will be charged P29 from Baclaran to Roosevelt and P24 from Recto to Santolan.
For the MRT 3, single journey and stored value tickets from Taft station to North Avenue station or vice versa will cost P28 from the current P15.
In a statement, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said the fare hike would result in P2 billion in savings that could be used to fund “development projects and relief operations.”
“We must emphasize that around P10 billion will still go to subsidizing LRT and MRT passengers. But the premise of the user-pays principle is this: If what each rider pays is closer to the actual cost of his or her own trip, the P2 billion savings can be used for development projects and relief operations to benefit those who never even get to use the LRT or MRT,” Abaya said.
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