Still on the LRT vs. the BRT: We want both, but...

With the recent controversy hounding Metro Cebu’s mass transit system, it seems to me that the Department of Transportation & Communications (DOTC) Cebuanos are made to choose which one is good for us… the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or the Light Rail Transit (LRT)? If you ask me, it is akin to choosing which of your two children are important to you! I dare say that we must get both because we needed both yesterday! This is the problem with having a Centralized form of governance we end up with peanuts because there are not enough funds when it comes to us Cebuanos! 

There is no question that BRT is cheaper to fund as its project cost is only half a billion in US dollars all in, which includes the acquisition of lots for the terminals. With the massive funding needed for the reconstruction of flooded areas in Northern Luzon and Metro Manila, there is doubt that the National Government would be more inclined to support the BRT as it is easier to implement for a much lesser cost. As for the LRT, I was reading its project cost which is around US$600 plus million dollars. If you translate this in pesos, I doubt if the Philippine government would be able to fund this.

Yet the AMA Group Holdings Corp. insists on putting up an LRT because it is a “no-brainer” for them as they would merely copy what they have in Metro Manila. But the reality is; no LRT project in Metro Manila and for that matter, the rest of the world makes money. But the AMA Group doesn’t care about this, they get their “cut” and the hell if this loses money or not!

Incidentally during that meeting at the EcoTech with the AMA Group, they hired Mr. Cris Saavedra as their man in Cebu. I don’t know what has happened since, but in my book the AMA Group is nothing but a carpetbagger (just like Mr. Saavedra) and if you haven’t forgotten, they also bidded for the Comelec’s computerization, but lost to Smartmatic.

While this project hasn’t even gotten out of the drawing boards, their projected fares are already at P15 pesos plus 50 centavos per kilometer. Now I would like to know whether the AMA Group Holdings Corp. already came up with a study whether the Cebuano riding public would pay close to P20 pesos for taking their LRT and another P20 pesos for taking the LRT back to their homes? While this is still on paper it’s already more expensive that taking the LRT or MRT from Taft to Trinoma which is only P12.00?

We know damn well that government funded projects end up with ballooning cost and in the end when the US$600 runs short, we may be talking higher fares even before the first trains start to run in the elevated rails?

The biggest mistake of the LRT’s in Metro Manila is that, they bring passengers to the major shopping malls at zero cost to the malls. In the end, they have made the shopping mall owners extremely rich, bringing consumers to their malls for free while the LRT loses revenues for the government.

This is one of the very reasons why I am against the LRT… unless our dear friend, Rep. Eddie Gullas listens to our pleas and agrees to drop the “L” and gave us instead a heavy gauge rail that would serve as a major decongestant to our already crowded Metro Cebu. Call it the Cebu Rail Transit Authority (CRTA), which should be run by Cebuanos like the MCIAA & CPA.

When Tropical Storm “Ondoy” hit Metro Manila with a great deluge, it was only then that the urban planners woke to the reality that Metro Manila was just become too overcrowded for its own sake. Now plans are on the drawing board to decongest Metro Manila. But then why only now? If only the great thinkers of Metro Manila only spent those huge sums of money to make the Philippine National Railway (PNR) a state-of-the-art railway like the railway systems in Japan, Metro Manila wouldn’t be as congested as it is.

But instead they spent those huge sums of money on their LRT 1, 2 & 3. which is a merry-go-round within Metro Manila.

To decongest Metro Manila, they constructed the North Luzon Express freeway (NLEX) and the South Luzon Express freeway (SLEX) for car owners and with gasoline prices jumping into record heights, even the middle class can’t afford to commute those long distances. This is why; they should have improved the PNR instead of having more LRTs!

I dare say that we should learn from the mistakes that Metro Manila made and ask for a heavy gauge railway system that would bring commuters to as far as Argao in the South and as far as Bogo in the North. The railways would still be on the ground (therefore it would cost less to build) and the CRTA would buy at least five hectares along its terminal so that when businesses flourish along the terminal, it is the CRTA that would earn from this, not the business owners. Lastly, these two projects, the BRT and the Rail System should not polarize Cebuanos into a pro-Osmeña or pro-Gullas group as this is bigger than both of them. This is a project of all Cebuanos!