MRT trains bog down three times on Saturday

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It was only the first week of 2018, but service interruptions appeared to be persistent, if not consistent, in the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), inconveniencing thousands of train commuters almost regularly.

A door failure forced a southbound train to unload about 230 commuters at Quezon Avenue Station at 2:21 p.m. on Saturday, according to an MRT advisory.

The service interruption was the third to be reported on the same day. The glitch was also the seventh for the first week of 2018.

The MRT management said the train was brought to the service depot for preventive maintenance and replacement of door components.

Disembarked passengers were loaded in the next train which arrived five minutes later, the advisory stated.

READ: Morning commute goes awry as 2 MRT trains hit by glitches

The two other glitches happened during the morning commute, disembarking nearly a thousand passengers.

The first glitch happened at 6:52 a.m. when a signaling error downed a northbound train at Boni Station, offloading about 325 commuters, the MRT management said in a service report.

The second incident came at 7:48 a.m. when a southbound train at Santolan-Annapolis Station was hit by an electrical failure in its motor, unloading about 600 passengers, according to the report.

READ: DOTr sends notice of termination to MRT-3 maintenance provider

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) blamed the “poor performance” of Busan Universal Rail Inc. (Buri) in maintaining the congested transit line.

Last October, the DOTr issued a notice of termination against Buri for failing to “ensure the availability of contractually obligated number of trains, and more importantly, to put in operation reliable and efficient trains.” /jpv