LRT, MRT ticket machines starts accepting new coins

Commuters jostle each other on a long queue at the MRT North EDSA in Quezon City.
EDWIN BACASMAS/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Ticket vending machines (TVMs) at all railway transit systems in Metro Manila are now accepting newly-designed coins circulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) announced on Tuesday that newly-designed P1, P5 and P10 coins can now be used to purchase tickets at TVMs at the Light Rail Transit Lines 1 and 2, as well as at the Metro Rail Transit Line 3.

“AF Payments, Inc. (AFPI), the company that introduced and manages the self-service TVMs, started the recalibration process as early as January this year,” the DOTr said in a statement.

“The entire process, which took three months, included the delivery of new coins to Manchester, United Kingdom for firmware development. This was subsequently followed by a series of software testing,” it said.

The AFPI, in a statement in January, announced that TVMs would start accepting the new coins in March. The DOTr, however, said the recalibration of TVMs was only completed on April 16, Monday.

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The BSP had started circulating the newly-designed coins late 2017. /je