Women to get own coaches in LRT

Coaches exclusively for female passengers will be introduced on trains of the Light Railway Transit to protect women from sexual harassment, the railway operator said yesterday.

The scheme will be implemented from next week after the Light Railway Transit Authority received complaints of "male passengers who deliberately squeeze their way into fully loaded trains to make sexual advances," LRTA administrator Teddy Cruz said.

The all-female coach would be installed behind a special section allotted for the elderly, pregnant and disabled passengers and adults with infants or children.

"To avoid confusion, security guards assigned at the platform will guide female passengers who want to use the all-female section," Cruz said.

Engineer Rod Bulario, head of LRT operations and engineering department, said that it would not be mandatory for women to take this special train.

Bulario noted that if a female passenger does not want to be separated from her male companion, she could join him in the regular coach.

"It would be up to the female passengers if they want to avail themselves of this special coach. But definitely, the males could never join them there," he added.

Bulario estimated that of the 320,000 daily passengers of the LRT, 60 percent are women.

The LRTA operates one of two overhead railway systems in Metro Manila. – AFP, Sheila Crisostomo