DOTC, MRTH open to MRT3 shutdown for passenger safety

MANILA, Philippines – To ease passengers’ suffering caused by recurring breakdowns of the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT3), its key stakeholders are in agreement over a possible temporary shutdown of the line.

“If safety is a clear issue, we have to shut down the rails,” Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said in an interview with ABS-CBN on Thursday, October 9.

The private shareholder of the Metro Rail Rail Transit Corporation, the concessionaire of the MRT3, agrees.

“If the issue is safety, then that is what it takes,” David Narvasa, legal counsel of the Metro Rail Transit Holdings (MRTH) Inc, said in response to a possible temporary shutdown of the train line for maintenance purposes.

Narvasa also said in a media forum on Thursday that the government should focus its efforts on rail improvement in the train system over the planned equity value buyout (EVBO), as this would prevent a temporary shutdown of the MRT3.

“Buy rails instead of bonds,” Narvasa urged the government.

Narvasa said that in October 2012, Sumitomo Corporation had turned over 86 pieces of rails to new maintenance provide PH Trams. The MRTH counsel also said that they had recommended a rehabilitation of the railway this year, but did not get any response from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

MRT3 officer-in-charge Renato San Jose had told reporters in an earlier interview that only 3 rails remain in the MRTA, and that trains will not be allowed to run if parts of the rails would breakdown while there are no spare parts available to replace them.

A DOTC memorandum dated September 4 said that a shutdown would be crucial in view of the number of spare rails in its possession. There are 2.5 rails at the MRT3’s depot.

At least 800 pieces of the 12-meter rails are needed to replace the old steel bars in several portions of the 17-kilometer railway from North Avenue, Quezon City to Taft Avenue in Pasay City, according to MRT3 spokesperson Hernando Cabrera, adding that the delivery would take 5 months.

Cabrera said, however, that the MRT3 rails are “still safe.”

The rails procurement is part of the P119.5-million ($2.65 million*) replacement of old rail tracks presented by the DOTC chief in September.

The DOTC’s other projects for the MRT3 line include the P870-million ($19.32 million*) ancillary system upgrade; P185-million ($4.11 million*) signaling system upgrade; P110-million ($2.44 million*) radio communication system upgrade; P50-million ($1.11 million*) elevators and escalators replacement; and the P13.7 million ($304,251) footbridge construction at the North Avenue station.

A temporary shutdown of the MRT3 line would affect an estimated 560,000 to 580,000 passengers of the train system.

The MRT3 has been hounded with technical problems that have led to mishaps, the worst, so far, on August 13 when one of its trains derailed, hurting some passengers who had to seek medical treatment. – Rappler.com

$1=P45.03