Hopes on track: How are PH railway projects going?
While the country reels from the oil shock due to the Middle East war, a long-term relief from the impact on its petroleum-based transportation system makes progress with rail projects being rolled out by officials who were ordered to make trips on passenger vehicles to experience the ordeal that ordinary Filipinos endure on the road daily.
Providing both “mobility and convenience” to commuters, two big-ticket infrastructure projects of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to connect Metro Manila to the suburbs will start to reduce a significant number of private vehicles and ease traffic on the main roads of the national capital by next year.
The partial operation of the Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT 7) and the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) would decongest the metro’s biggest corridors, Acting Transportation Secretary Giovanni Lopez said in a roundtable discussion with Inquirer reporters and editors last Friday.
When MRT 7 starts its initial commercial run by the second quarter of next year and the NSCR by the third or fourth quarter, they could replace as many as 200,000 private vehicles, each carrying five passengers. Twelve of the 14 MRT 7 stations will be open by then.
Hub needed in Valenzuela
When fully operational, the 22-kilometer MRT 7 line will move 300,000 passengers daily, between the City of San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, and Metro Manila, passing along Commonwealth Avenue, and cutting current travel time from two to three hours to just 35 minutes.
The 147-km NSCR links Clark International Airport in Pampanga province to Calamba, Laguna province, and is projected to benefit about 800,000 passengers daily and reduce travel time by one-half, or just two hours.
The NSCR will initially run from Malolos City, Bulacan, to Valenzuela City. This is part of the project’s Phase 1 which will extend to Tutuban in Manila.
The NSCR project, however, would require a “transit-oriented” depot or hub in Valenzuela where passengers getting off there could take another public transport to get to their final destinations.
This would entail a study by Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) of whether public utility vehicles (PUVs), such as UV Express or point-to-point (P2P), buses should be stationed at the Valenzuela depot with special permits.
Phase 2 of the NSCR project would connect the country’s busiest and primary gateway, Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) to Clark, which Lopez described as a “very good airport but underutilized.”
Common Station
DOTr data as of February this year showed that construction of the whole NSCR is just 37-percent complete with 12 of its total 35 stations already being built. Right-of-way (ROW) acquisition, which usually delays the infrastructure projects, was 76-percent accomplished.
The construction of MRT 7 is 85 percent complete and the ROW acquisition for its rail component is 93-percent done, according to the DOTr.
The stations for the initial run will start at the North Avenue Station in Quezon City and end at the Sacred Heart Station in Caloocan City. The remaining stations are in Tala, Caloocan, and in San Jose del Monte.
The North Avenue station is part of the Common Station, which will connect the four main rail lines—MRT 7, MRT 3, Light Rail Transit 1 (LRT 1), and Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP), which is under construction.
The Common Station, which straddles two malls—Trinoma and SM North Edsa—will allow passengers to transfer conveniently from one line to another without having to go through these huge malls.
Lopez said the DOTr was aiming for “connectivity” and was working to complete the construction of the Common Station in time for MRT 7’s initial operation.
The MRT 3 is also undergoing rehabilitation works through October next year, including the construction of protective platform barriers that would automatically open and close to prevent accidents.
Longer wait for subway
The much-anticipated 33-km MMSP, the country’s first underground railway that will also pass under the Pasig River, is expected to be completed by 2032. Once finished, it will take just 45 minutes to get from Valenzuela to Bicutan in Taguig City. It has a spur line to Naia.
These railway projects aim to promote the “modal shift” from private transportation to mass transit systems, Lopez said.
The transport chief cited the “disturbing” findings of a 2023 traffic index by TomTom, a Dutch multinational company that provides navigation and traffic data, which showed motorists in Metro Manila lost the equivalent of almost five days, or a total of 117 hours, stuck in gridlock.
That was a congestion rate of 52 percent, which meant that motorists spent more than half of their time in traffic than they would under regular conditions.
Taking PUV once a week
After taking office in September last year, Lopez ordered senior officials of DOTr and its attached agencies to take public transportation at least once a week to get a better grasp of the plight of the commuting public.
The officials, him included, are required to submit weekly reports on their observations and suggestions to improve the mass transit system that daily tests the patience of ordinary commuters.
The weekly experience of commuting from his home in Quezon City to his office on Ortigas Avenue has kept him grounded and made him more aware of the needs of the commuters, Lopez said.
He recalled one bus ride with an undersecretary, standing and sweating through the entire trip as the bus had no air conditioning and was full to the brim.
“I saw some passengers who slept through the ordeal,” Lopez said. Such situations call for urgent responses from the government to improve both mobility and convenience for ordinary Filipinos.
What was one personal recommendation that he made after that experience? The transfer of one bus station close to a pedestrian overpass on Edsa so that passengers don’t have to walk far to cross to the other side of the highway, he said.
