In the Know: Metro trains

Three elevated railways with a combined length of 50.35 kilometers and have 44 stations link six cities in Metro Manila.

MRT

The Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3) is a 16.9-km elevated railway along Edsa that has 13 stations from North Avenue in Quezon City to Edsa Taft in Pasay City.

Starting operations in 1999, MRT-3 is the flagship project of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) aimed at easing the chronic traffic congestion along the 24-kilometer Edsa.

The rail system has 73 air-conditioned cars, assembled in three-car coaches. They were built by CKD Doprovni System of Prague, Czech Republic.

Each coach, which runs at a maximum speed of 65 kilometers per hour, can carry 394 passengers “under crush loading conditions” at any one time.

The coaches are also initially designed to carry in excess of 23,000 passengers per hour, per direction and are expandable to accommodate 48,000 passengers per hour, per direction, according to the MRT website.

However, years of neglect and daily operations stretched beyond the limit have made MRT 3 prone to constant breakdowns. The system carries more than half a million passengers a day but its capacity is only 350,000.

Regular train schedules start from 4:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 5:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on weekends.

LRT Line 1

The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) is a wholly owned government corporation created in 1980 to operate and maintain the LRT system.

Considered the first LRT system in Southeast Asia, LRT-1 started operations in 1984 with an initial length of 13.95 km and 18 stations from Monumento in Caloocan City to Baclaran in Pasay City.

In 2010, a 5.7-km railway was opened connecting the loop from Monumento station to MRT-3 North Avenue station with two additional stations (Balintawak and Roosevelt) and a pending common station.

As of October, the LRTA had recorded a total passenger traffic of 141.9 million, not far from the recorded 171.80 million total passengers in 2013.

LRT Line 2

Also called the “Megatren,” LRT-2 started full operations in 2004.

Line 2 has a total length of 13.8 km, with 11 stations from Recto Avenue in Manila to Santolan in Pasig City.

The 18 trains of Megatren are powered by electric motors of 1,500 volts and have maximum speed of 80 kph, taking only 30 minutes to travel between endpoints.

The four-car train, which measures 3.2 meters wide and 92.6 meters long, can carry up to 1,628 passengers per trip.

As of October, LRT 2 passengers totaled 60.65 million, while 71.45 million were recorded in 2013, data from LRTA showed.

Commercial trips both on Lines 1 and 2 on weekdays start at 5:00 a.m. and end at 10:00 p.m. and on weekends and holidays from 5:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

New fare

The current fares on MRT 3 range from P10 to P15. In 1999, fares ranged from P17 to P34 and were reduced from P12 to P20 in 2000.

Current fares range from P12 to P20 on Line 1 while rates range from P12 to P15 on Line 2.

The new fare scheme, which is set to take effect on Jan. 4, will adopt the base fare of P11 plus P1 per succeeding kilometers.–Inquirer Research

Sources: gov.ph; lrta.gov.ph; dotcmrt3.gov.ph; and Inquirer Archives