Closing the loop

Around a month ago, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said the government is hard at work to improve and upgrade the country’s transportation system, even committing to make the Philippines a “leader in smart and sustainable transportation.”

While the Philippines still has a long way to go in terms of matching the likes of Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong in mass transport, President Marcos’ words offer hope to commuters and motorists who are long tired of long lines in bus and train stations, and the hours lost to traffic jams on a daily basis.

I have said before that when it comes to mass transport, rail transit offers the most effective and viable solution. Aside from efficiently moving people from one point to another, it also significantly helps lessen congestion on roads thereby, addressing traffic.

Sadly, the Philippines has yet to provide commuters with an efficient mass rail transit that will allow for seamless line transfers to get to one point from another without the need to shift to another mode of transportation, such as buses or taxi cabs.

The good news is all this could improve if the proposal submitted by the consortium of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) and Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. is approved and put into action.

The consortium has proposed to rehabilitate, operate, and maintain the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3), as well as carry out the necessary operations to allow through-train-operations to connect the MRT-3 with the Light Rail Transit 1 (LRT-1) – finally closing the loop and creating a loop similar to other countries.

Under the proposal, rehabilitation works will be integrated with the construction of the South Interconnection Facility, which would allow for seamless transfers between the MRT-3 and LRT-1 and vice versa. The proposal was recently endorsed by the Public-Private Partnership Center.

If implemented, this is guaranteed to be of great convenience not just to thousands of commuters but to motorists as well.

Interoperability between the MRT-3 and LRT-1 will help reduce travel time and lower transportation costs for commuters on top of the added convenience and effectively help decongest EDSA as well.

The consortium estimates a 24 percent reduction in EDSA traffic volume if the MRT-3 and LRT-1 are integrated and if riding capacity is immediately increased.

The responsibility of operating and maintaining the train lines will also be assumed by the consortium, establishing accountability.

On the part of the government, turning over the maintenance and operations of the MRT-3 to the consortium will immediately eliminate PHP1.3 billion in subsidies allocated for the train line. These subsidies can be realigned. This can be reallocated to boost funding for infrastructure projects or social services.

Moreover, the government will immediately receive concession payments from the consortium should the proposal be approved.

Both MPIC and Sumitomo have demonstrated rail expertise, which makes their consortium the most qualified choice to take over operations of the MRT-3.

Through the Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., MPIC has investments in the LRT-1 while Sumitomo has been credited for drastically improving the reliability of the MRT-3 as its maintenance provider. Sumitomo has also shown rail expertise in Japan – known for having one of the most efficient rail systems.

With the Philippines working to become an upper-middle-income country in the coming years, the need for a more efficient and reliable mass transport system is further highlighted to match and support the country’s economic growth trajectory.

Our commuters deserve better. Accepting and implementing the proposal of MPIC and Sumitomo is a step in the right direction towards providing Filipino commuters with better transportation, reducing traffic, and supporting economic development.

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in the foregoing article are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Philippine News Agency (PNA) or any other office under the Presidential Communications Office.