While residents of Metro Manila,
despite grousing, are used to it by now, the National Capital Region’s public
mass transport infrastructure has been famous – or infamous – to the rest of
the country due to their tendency to epically break down. It can be something
like an MRT train door opening during transit, or a breakdown between stations,
or a fire breaking out and leaving an LRT line out of commission for a long
time. But the Department of Transportation does exert its utmost to fix these
problems, and upgrade when possible. Metro Railway Transit Line 3 is getting
new trains this very night, after all.
CNN Philippines reports that new train coaches are being added to
the MRT-3 line by the Department of Tourism as of the evening of Tuesday,
October 15. The trains in question were provided for Metro Railway Transit by
CRRC Dalian from China, with three coaches each with a combined passenger
capacity of 1,050 people in a single trip. Being spanking new, these trains
will only be made available for passenger use at night, during the off-peak
hours from 8:30 PM to 10:30 PM. That will serve as the Dalian trains’ trial
period until next month.
This development might perhaps be
greeted with a collective “It’s about time.” There are actually a total of 48
trains purchased by the government from CRRC Dalian back in 2015. Their
implementation proved difficult and nearly impossible due to discovered
incompatibility issues between the trains and the rail system of the MRT network.
With the introduction of the first coaches from the batch finally happening
this week, it appears the problems have been ironed out. This is thanks to the
DOTr’s partnership with Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries,
the latter via its local subsidiary TES Philippines. They will replace the
tracks to finally make other Dalian trains go.
With assistance from the Suminto-MHI-TESP
tandem, the Department of Transportation looks to increase operating MRT
trains, currently at 15, to 20 for more rides available. They are also looking
to double the current 30 km/h speed to 60 km/h, and reduce waiting time between
arrival and departure to 3.5 minutes. The trial period for the Dalian trains
lasts until November.
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