MANILA, Philippines – Even trains apparently need their breaks.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) on All Saints’ Day, November 1 recorded 3 Metro Rail Transit (MRT) trains stopping within 12 hours.

The first happened at 8:23 am at the Quezon Avenue Station, during the last quarter of the morning rush hour. The second and third happened at Magallanes station at around 10:53 am and 3:47 pm, respectively. All happened in the MRT line 3 (MRT-3).

The MRT-3’s status website said all of them unloaded passengers “due to [a] technical problem”, and the situations were classified all as “category 3”.

According to the line’s status center, the category means the “train [was] removed without replacement.”

DOTr officials have been sought for comment by transportation beat reporters as of posting time.

This comes after incumbent transportation officials filed a case against former Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya, and the maintenance provider of the malfunctioning MRT— Busan Universal Rail Incorporated (BURI).

The current DOTr officials blamed BURI entirely for all the glitches, calling them “preventable defects and not design defects” that “could have been averted had [the MRT3] been properly maintained.”

The contract with BURI has since been terminated, which was announced through a DOTr notice.

Nonetheless, passengers keep on encountering glitches, as the malfunctions have become almost daily occurrences. – Rappler.com