MRTC needs $100M to buy 48 additional railcars

The light railway system that runs from North Avenue in Quezon City to Taft Avenue needs around $100 million to accommodate additional 48 trains in order to satisfy peak-hour ridership demand.

Metro Rail Transit Corp. president Robert Sobrepena said the consortium already made a proposal to buy an additional 48 trains as the railway system has already reached its full ridership capacity which is 400,000 a day.

"If we couldn’t add more trains, the system will break down," Sobrepeña said.

The government plans to tap official development assistance to finance the acquisition of additional 48 trains.

The project aims to reduce passengers’ waiting time at stations during peak-hours, provide comfort and convenience and increase fare box revenue in order to decrease government subsidy.

Sobrepeña said the consortium continues to hold talks with the government with respect to its plan to pursue the extension of the railway to Monumento from North Avenue.

The Department of Transportation and Communication earlier said phase 2 of the MRT 3 project should be subjected to a Swiss challenge or a bidding process.

A Swiss challenge is a mechanism that allows other interested entities to submit offers that are better than that of the original proponent.

The current operator, however, is allowed to adjust its proposal to beat that of the lowest bidder.

The MRTC, however, said it should be allowed to build the extension of the MRT-3 because this was part of the supplemental agreement it had entered into with the DOTC in 1999.

The Department of Justice, however, came out with a ruling that the supplemental agreement entered by the MRTC and DOTC for the construction of the extension project had already lapsed. For this reason, the MRT Phase 2 project had to be subject to another public bidding.

MRTC has already submitted a proposal for the construction of the Edsa MRT-3 extension for $213.99 million.

Pending a final opinion of the DOJ on the matter, the DOTC has been preparing the terms of reference for the bidding of the extension project.

The MRT Phase 2 is supposed to bring MRT III in full circle with Light Rail Transit (LRT) II as it will run some five kilometers from North Avenue to Roosevelt, Balintawak and Monumento.

With the MRT-3 linked to the LRT-1, the ridership may double to reach 600,000 passengers a day. EDSA MRT-3, at present, carries about 350,000 passengers daily.