MRT 3, LRT 2 lines break down; several passengers affected

Both the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) 2 lines, two of the country’s busiest transit lines,  broke down on Friday morning and afternoon, respectively, stranding hundreds of passengers.

Around 250 passengers were off-loaded by the MRT 3 line around 10:11 a.m. on Friday, the 55th unloading incident in the embattled transit line this year.

Aly Narvaez, MRT 3 media relations officer, said a signaling error forced a southbound train to unload its passengers at the GMA-Kamuning station.

She said the fault might have been caused by worn-out signaling components. The passengers were later loaded in the next train which arrived four minutes later.

Friday’s breakdown follows the MRT 3’s unloading incident on May 23 when a southbound train was forced to off-load around 1,000 passengers at the Araneta-Cubao station due to a door glitch.

Streak broken

The said incident broke a seven-year high, 28-day glitch-free streak for the transit line, which had been plagued by constant breakdowns and passenger unloading incidents.

Meanwhile, the LRT 2 line was forced to implement provisionary service for the second time this week after encountering a signaling problem from V. Mapa to Recto southbound stations.

As of 3:30 p.m., operations have been limited to Santolan to V. Mapa and vice versa while intervention was ongoing.

Friday’s glitch followed the LRT 2’s partial shutdown for almost eight hours on Wednesday after damaged power lines forced the off-loading of hundreds of passengers around 11:30 a.m.