Clang, clang, clang: MRT rolls out 18 trains Thursday night

After 16 days of operating smoothly – its longest glitch-free service by far this year – the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) seemed ready to stretch its luck a little further as it fielded 18 trains on Thursday night for the first time in six months.

MRT media relations officer Aly Narvaez broke this news in a message to reporters, adding that the last time the beleaguered transit line was able to field 18 trains was on Nov. 16 last year.

Narvaez told the Inquirer that they were able to deploy 18 trains because the maintenance team was able to restore three more serviceable cars in the past few days.

Lately, the MRT has seen to an average of 17 operational trains, with 15 running the mainline while two sets of three-wagoners were kept as spare trains.

But the public ought to manage its expectations just yet, as MRT director for operations Michael Capati said the train line would still be running 15 trains during weekdays and 12 during weekends.

“We still need to do regular maintenance of all trains running,” Capati said.

The country’s busiest train line has been walloped by frequent breakdowns and passenger unloading incidents.

Within weeks of each other in November, the MRT hogged the headlines after a female passenger’s arm was severed in a freak accident. As if that was not enough, several MRT commuters had a shock of their lives when the coach they were riding broke away due to decoupling.

But since April, the MRT line has been showing gradual but significant progress as it began fielding an average of 15 trains a day.

Ridership has also shot up, reaching an average of 300,000 riders, according to Department of Transportation figures.

On May 4, the train hit its peak ridership of 388,150 riders with 15 trains and no unloading incidents.

Its last unloading incident was on April 23./ac