Poe urges strict maintenance of PNR trains after derailment

A PNR train plies its route. INQUIRER FILE

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) should “seriously enforce strict inspection and maintenance” of Philippine National Railways (PNR) trains, Senator Grace Poe said after a PNR train derailed Saturday.

Poe, chair of the Senate public services committee, said the derailment should serve as a “wake-up call on (DOTr’s) safety management and enforcement.”

“We have had incidents of derailment of PNR trains every year, and it’s simply unacceptable. Whether it’s the MRT, LRT or the PNR, we don’t want to see passengers getting offloaded and made to walk along the rails,” she said in a statement, Sunday.

The incident caused the offloading of passengers, and prompted some of them to walk back to Paco station where they waited for another train to arrive, while others preferred to look for other modes of transportation.

READ: PNR railroad train derails after leaving Paco station

Poe called on the DOTr to provide a public transportation system that would “bring the people to their destination and back to their homes safe and unscathed.”

“We are calling on the Department of Transportation to look into this incident and seriously enforce strict inspection and maintenance of the PNR trains, considering that a number of them are already old,” she added, noting that the DOTr has allocated a budget for this in the 2018 national budget.

“The administration has lined up ambitious infrastructure projects involving railways in the next few years. While we embark on these, let us show the public that the current PNR fleet is reliable, comfortable and safe,” she added. /cbb