Gov't announces fare rollback in P2P bus service, unli rides on weekends

MANILA, Philippines - The government is offering fare discounts and unlimited weekend rides to passengers of the newly launched point-to-point (P2P) express bus service, Cabinet secretary and traffic czar Jose Rene Almendras said.

Almendras said the standard rate from Trinoma and SM North EDSA to Makati will now be P55 from its original rate of P60. Fares for persons with disabilities (PWDs), students and senior citizens is at P40. A group of five regular passengers can also get a P10 discount.

For the SM Megamall-Makati route, standard fare has been lowered to P40 for regular passengers, P30 for PWDs, students and senior citizens, and P35 for groups of five.

The P2P also offers a "Weekend Unli" promo where a commuter can ride an express bus as many times as possible during weekends from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. for P100.

The P2P bus express service is available from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on weekdays.

The government said the P2P service also offers a new ticketing system where the passenger can buy ticket from the bus. Commuters can also make seat reservations, as standing is not allowed on the service.

Almendras said the service also provides consistent and additional salaries for the drivers as they are being paid on a daily basis. Passengers are also allowed to tip drivers.

Almendras said the government is happy with the test run results of P2P which aims to ease the traffic woes in Metro Manila.

The government also announced that it has started testing double-decker buses on EDSA in its bid to decongest traffic in the metro.