MRT-3 Weekend Operating Hours to be Shortened

In light of recent glitches that have plagued the train system, the EDSA-situated MRT-3 may have its weekend operating hours shortened to give way to railroad repairs.

Credits to the owner

According to reports from GMA News Online and Balita.ph, MRT general manager Ramon Buenafe said that the rails will be more efficient and improvements can be seen once the repairs have been completed, and the speed limit can be raised once again to 65kph. Defective railroad tracks are seen as the one of the primary causes of glitches in the train lines; thus, the MRT-3 management sees the railroad replacement a top priority.

The new weekend schedule will see the last Saturday trip to be at 9:00 PM, and operations will resume at 12:00 noon the following day (Sunday). Between this time, MRT-3 Management and its maintenance provider are to work on repairing the six-kilometer critical stretch of railroad tracks.

While the weekend time frame had already been announced, there is no definite schedule for the commencement of the repair work because the government has yet to receive the supply of additional welding kits from abroad, which was supposed to be delivered yesterday.

In addition to the railroad track repairs, hand straps shall be increased and will be installed to all capable trains.

In recent days, the MRT-3 suffered operational glitches that injured at least three people. It is also noted that the line has almost half of its trains out of operation, with only 12 of 18 currently working.

{GMA News Online, Balita.ph}

Update: The shortened MRT hours will start this weekend, February 28, according to an Inquirer report.

7 Comments

djtron99 says:

10 years ago

Instead of increasing number of train tips to increase profit and commuter’s convenience, now they are increasing train downtime. I have some suugestions and hopefully DOTC will notice these:
1. The govt should run MRT, this way, it will service oriented and not profit oriented.
2. OR, a PPP or sole private company, in which procurement, maintenance and operations will be handled by one company in long term contract. Definitely not on monthly contractual companies as this will create problem on long lead procurement maintenance items.
3. Maintenance will be done after midnight
midnight.
4. Generate revenues on ads and retail/commercial development.
5. Implement a much efficient prepaid card system (discounts) and increase ticketing machines.
6. Every station should have bus stops or terminals, working escalators, elevators and toilets for convenience of passengers.

Once, we develop more train lines and improve train services and increase infrastructure development, people will patronage more our train system and rely less on private cars and other modes of transport. Private sector can also benefit from this, as it will lessen travel time for delivery of goods and services.
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djtron99 says:

10 years ago

Oh I forgot, implement a hefty fine on the operator if there are downtime on train service.
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1cho says:

10 years ago

I wish they could bring back the ticketing machines coz, take a look at our neighbor Malaysia, they’re all automated na
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