Power surge temporarily stalls LRT-2 operations

MANILA, Philippines— Problems in the stability of Metro Manila’s power supply caused a suspension of Light Rail Transit Line 2 operations on Thursday afternoon, authorities said.

LRT Authority spokesman Hernando Cabrera said the Recto to Santolan train lines were paralyzed at around 2 p.m. on Thursday. He said the agency was eyeing a huge electricity spike near Line 2’s Pureza Station as the culprit.

“Our UPS (unlimited power supply) units were damaged by the spike of Meralco’s (Manila Electric Co.) power,” said Cabrera, who also sits as the agency’s corporate secretary.

UPS units are used to insulate the train line’s main power systems from spikes in power usually experienced in the Philippines.

At around 3:15 p.m., LRT Line 2 operations were partially restored, with trains running between the Cubao and the Santolan stations.

He said the spike in Meralco’s power supply also caused problems at the LRT Line 1, which runs along Taft Avenue, but causing some inconvenience to passengers. “We had to reboot the computers for our passenger gates so for a few minutes, people could not get in to the trains,” Cabrera said. “Fortunately, once the systems were done booting up, everything went back to normal,” he said.