Good news for commuters

One of the most challenging things about being Filipino and living in the Philippines is the difficult, dizzying and dirty public commute.

It’s no exaggeration to say that commuting around Metro Manila is really exhausting, especially if you live in Quezon City and work in another city some 30 kilometers away, such as Makati or Parañaque.

It is therefore a welcome development that five new stations of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT 1) from Baclaran to Parañaque City started serving the riding public yesterday.

We needed these expanded rail projects years ago but unfortunately, progress was hampered by challenges including lack of political will, right-of-way issues, funding and many more.

But at last, on Friday, the new stations were finally unveiled and are now servicing the riding public.

President Marcos led the unveiling of the marker of the Dr. A. Santos (formerly Sucat) station.

These are important developments, especially for people who live in the northern part of the metro but work in the south or vice versa. This is also a welcome development for travelers because of the stations at the Manila International Airport and the Ninoy Aquino Avenue. Commuters heading to the provinces will also benefit from the connectivity to the PITX.

“Commuters will now see a great reduction in their travel time, allowing them to spend more time with their loved ones,” Marcos said.

‘Station after station’

President Marcos said the expansion of the LRT does not end here.

“Our journey toward a more seamless and modernized public transportation system does not end here. We are committed to building station after station, reaching as far and as fast as our people’s needs dictate,” he said.

Kudos to the Marcos administration, especially to Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista, for making this happen, although work on the project actually spanned several administrations as Marcos himself acknowledged – presidents Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Noynoy Aquino and Rodrigo Duterte.

Having efficient mass transportation projects such as the LRT and MRT will really help alleviate the burden of commuting here in our country, especially now that Metro Manila is imploding with the worsening traffic situation.

Traffic is really so bad that it takes two hours to get home from Makati to Quezon City in my neck of the woods, even another hour more if one lives farther north such as in Fairview or beyond. It takes longer if you take public transportation.

Filipinos certainly deserve better. The status quo is unacceptable.

Our leaders should have prioritized rail projects and mass transportation decades ago. Instead, there was too much focus on roads, probably because corruption in road projects was easier and bigger. Now, we lag way behind our neighbors in Southeast Asia.

Marcos has a chance to change this and make commuting more convenient for Filipinos.

The LRT-1 extension project is also a testament to the fact that private sector partnership works.

The Light Rail Manila Corp., operator of LRT-1, is a joint venture company of Metro Pacific Investments Corp.’s Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., Ayala Corp’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Sumitomo Corp. and the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure’s Macquarie Investments Holdings (Philippines) PTE Ltd.

The joint venture assumed operations and maintenance of LRT-1 in September 2015 through a P65-billion 32-year concession agreement with the Department of Transportation and the Light Rail Transit Authority. Since then, the consortium has implemented improvements in LRT-1, including refurbishments and station upgrades.

Among those who joined Marcos at the inauguration on Friday were Parañaque Mayor Eric Olivarez, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. chairman, president and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan and economic affairs minister Nihei Daisuke of the Japanese embassy.

Support from Japan

The project is also a testament to the Japanese government’s support. It was made possible through official development assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency which helped finance the LRT-1 extension project.

The extension will have more phases – all the way to Las Piñas and Zapote for phase two and to Niog in Cavite for phase three.

Actually, tycoon Manny Villar wanted to take over the LRT-1 extension in Cavite and has submitted an unsolicited proposal for it. However, I’m not sure what’s the status of his pitch.

For now, the first phase of the extension project certainly bodes well for the riding public. With the completion of the new segment, LRT 1 can now serve an additional 80,000 passengers every day.

Aside from LRT-1, the government should fast-track the completion of other railway projects in the country, including the Unified Grand Central Station in Quezon City, the MRT-7 and the North-South Commuter Railway.

The Philippines, Marcos said, can also take advantage of the Public Service Act which removes the 40 percent cap on foreign investment in railways. This move is meant to attract foreign investments in the transport sector.

Outside Luzon, the government should also pursue other rail projects.

A reader, Alex Serrano, suggested that there should be a renewed interest in the revival of the old railway networks in the islands of Panay, Negros and Cebu in the Visayas and of course the long-delayed Mindanao Railway.

Ours is a uniquely bountiful archipelago. Every Filipino deserves to be able to travel across the country in a safe and convenient way – whether it’s by land, rail, sea or air – to see and experience the Philippines and everything it has to offer.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.