LRTA increases passenger capacity

Transportation and traffic woes are expected to be eased along Taft and Rizal Avenues as the Light Rail Transit Authority targets a 100 percent increase in passenger capacity that would allow it to carry 80,000 passengers per hour for its Baclaran-Monumento line, LRTA Administrator Teddy Cruz said.

At present, its 32 trains carry an average of 31,500 passengers per hour in both directions during peak hours. Cruz said to achieve this target, the LRTA has started expanding and modernizing its systems, including the acquisition of new airconditioned trains.

He said the project, which is being undertaken to cope with the expected increase in passenger volume in the years to come, is divided into two phases.

The first phase, which is almost complete, involves the conversion of its 32 two-car trains into three-car trains and the acquisition of seven new airconditioned four-car trains. This brought the total fleet to 28 trains (with one extra car) or 92 cars.

The project also calls for the acquisition and installation of air-conditioning units for the 64-car old fleet. By April 2003, all the trains are expected to be airconditioned, Cruz said.

The second phase involves the acquisition of 12 additional air-conditioned four-car trains that will bring the total fleet to 40 trains. This project is expected to be completed by 2004.

He said to accommodate the new trains, the agency will undertake additional civil works on some of its stations and the depot. To be upgraded are the equipment for signaling, telecommunications, traction power supply and distribution, track work and the automated fare collection system.

The administrator said the upgraded and expanded train system would not only carry more passengers but decongest traffic along the Taft Avenue-Rizal Avenue corridor as well.

He said to allow for an easy access of passengers between the LRT 1 and MRT 3 systems, an elevated passenger concourse from the Taft Avenue station of MRT 3 to the EDSA station of LRT 1 is now being constructed.

Also being simultaneously constructed is another footbridge from the EDSA east to the EDSA west stations of LRT 1.

"The LRT system has been operating with its original fleet acquired in the mid-80s. The increasing passenger volume and the need to ease traffic in the metropolis demand that we fast track the expansion and modernization of our system," he stressed.