DOTC: MRT now operates up to 45 coaches at peak hours

AMID growing criticisms from commuters regarding the deteriorating state of the Metro Rail Transit-3 (MRT), the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) on Thursday said that the railway system now deploys 45 coaches during peak hours.

“This belies earlier claims by various individuals that the railway system is now down to only four to seven trains. The DOTC is also dispelling other lies being perpetuated about the MRT-3,” the transport agency said in a statement.

DOTC maintained that MRT’s present condition should not be attributed to the past three to four years alone, saying that such allegations revealed “an utter lack of understanding of the problem.”

“The root cause is the onerous Build-Lease-and-Transfer (BLT) contract which provides for grossly disadvantageous terms against government. These include the requirement to pay billions of pesos per year to the private owner, regardless of whether the latter performs its obligations such as adding coaches,” DOTC said.

The MRT-3 became fully operational in July 2000 under a 25-year BLT contract between DOTC and the Sobrepeña-owned Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC).

In his last State of the Nation Address, President Benigno Aquino III said MRTC obtained a temporary restraining order to stop the government’s procurement of new MRT coaches, adding that there should have been a “general overhaul” of the rail system in 2008 but “only token cosmetic changes were undertaken” according to DOTC.

DOTC also contradicted the claim of Vice President Jejomar Binay in his counter-Sona that a budget of P5 billion was allotted for the overhaul of MRT last year.

“It is clear that there is no such entry. There was only a P 4.5-billion appropriation, which was for the addition of trains,” DOTC said.

“Thus, the DOTC procured 48 new coaches in 2014. However, private owner MRT Holdings II had the temerity to obtain a temporary restraining order against the addition of trains, which in the first place, was its obligation to the public which it did not perform. The prototype of these coaches is set to arrive within the month,” it added.

READ: DOTC urges MRT Holdings: Don’t stop gov’t from buying new trains

In his counter-Sona, Binay also questioned why there were no new trains despite the P4.5-billion budget supposedly released four years ago. But DOTC Secretary Emilio Abaya said Binay’s attacks only revealed the vice president’s ignorance about the root of MRT woes.

READ: Binay hits MRT’s current mess and sorry state | Abaya on Binay’s tirades on MRT: You know nothing