DOTC to test MRT coaches from China this month

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) will test this month the newly assembled second light rail vehicle (LRV) of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT 3), as it continues looking for ways to provide new train cars and shorten passengers’ waiting time in every station.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya said the LRV is equipped with an engine and its electrical components would be checked.

When the checkup is completed this week, the LRV will be subjected to dynamic testing to ensure its parts are reliable.

The testing includes the required 5,000-kilometer run to be conducted along the main line during non-revenue hours.

“Commuters will experience increased convenience and service reliability with the arrival of more new LRVs. If the evaluation of the first set is satisfactory, we are expecting one new train to be operational by the end of this quarter,” Abaya said.

The LRV is the second of 48 train cars acquired from Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co. of China under the DOTC-MRT 3 capacity expansion project.

The first of 48 new LRVs was assembled in August last year. Two more are to be delivered by next month.

Beginning March, four new LRVs would be shipped to the country every month until January next year.

The MRT 3 capacity expansion project is expected to ease congestion and suffering of passengers of the train system that runs from North Avenue in Quezon City to Taft Avenue in Pasay.

Through the project, the DOTC expects to boost the train’s capacity to over 800,000 passengers from 350,000 per day.

“With mobility a priority to the DOTC, we are hoping to provide more available trains to the riding public through the 48 additional LRVs – an improvement that should have been done by the system’s private owner, Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC), in the mid-2000s – in addition to system upgrades and better maintenance works,” Abaya said.