Common ticket for MRT, LRT out in Sept.

Soon, train commuters will need just one ticket to ride on all three of Metro Manila’s light rail trains.

The Automatic Fare Collection System (AFCS)—the common ticket system for the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Lines 1 and 2 and the Metro Rail Transit-3 or MRT-3—is expected to be implemented this year, according to a Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) senior adviser.

At the sidelines of a meeting with bus operators at the Land Transportation Office (LTO), Robert Siy of the DOTC Undersecretary for Planning Office told reporters that under the department’s agreement with private concessionaires, the AFCS should be activated by September.

Last March, the DOTC and a consortium of the Metro Pacific Investment Corp. and Ayala Corp. signed a 10-year concession agreement to build and implement the P1.72-billion AFCS project.

Under the AFCS, the old magnetic-based train cards will be replaced by contact-less “smart” cards that come with a microchip. These cards can be used in all three rail transit lines similar to Hong Kong’s Octopus cards and the EZ Link system in Singapore.

“There will be new cards and there will be new machines, and you will just be able to tap your card then walk through [the turnstile]. You’ll be able to [get] into the train station [faster],” Siy said.

He added that the DOTC’s vision was for the new cards to also be sold in convenience stores and other outlets to shorten the lines for tickets at train stations.

Siy said the use of electronic payment for fares would be a “win-win” situation for all parties. “It will also provide government with very useful information on the travel demand. We can get information [on] where people start and end their trips, and we can also count how many people want to go where. It then gives us better data for long-term planning,” he pointed out.

He also said that with the microchips, the cards could even be used to make other purchases under an electronic payment system like Singapore’s EZ Link cards.

Siy added that the DOTC was also looking into the possibility of expanding the use of the AFCS system to passenger buses.

“[Buses] would have more efficient accounting of their finances, because every day, the money would be deposited in the account of the bus operator, and it gives a summary report of how much was collected for each bus,” he said.