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| Manila MRT Ayala Station in Makati City (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
But Abaya said in a round-table discussion with INQUIRER editors and reporters on Wednesday that the planned P10 average increase for the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Lines 1 and 2 and the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 would be done in two equal stages through 2014.
This means fares, which were last adjusted in the early 2000s, will increase by P5 in 2013 while the second P5 increase will kick in next year.
“This increase has been long delayed so we are about to execute it. The matrix for LRT 1 requires us to catch up,” Abaya said.
“It was discussed a year ago in the budget hearing and it was taken as a set, all three railway lines,” he added.
“It should happen planning-wise in August or within the year.”
The announcement of the fare increases comes amid severe criticism of the LRT-MRT operations—coaches with passengers woefully packed like sardines most times of the day and long queues to the stations during rush hours.
For example, MRT 3 was designed to serve 350,000 passengers per day, but some 600,000 people cram the system daily.
A 1.3-kilometer stretch of the line on north Edsa—from Muñoz to Trinoma—has yet to be connected, three years into the Aquino administration.
Former Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas proposed a fare increase earlier in 2011, but it was met with opposition from critics who pointed out that managing public transport was a government function.
Critics say that no mass transportation system anywhere in the world makes money, quite apart from Hong Kong. But in this Chinese enclave, revenues come mainly from shop rentals in the mass transit railway stations, they add.
Reports showed earlier that the entire P10 average fare hike will happen this year but the DOTC secretary said the agency decided to “break it up” into two parts over two years.
Even with the fare increase, the LRT lines and MRT 3 come out “cheaper” than rates charged by bus operators, which are pegged at P40 per passenger, Abaya said.
The government is calculating that ridership at the train lines, which serve over 1.3 million passengers daily, will not be substantially affected by the rate increase.
The current fare at MRT, which runs through Edsa, Metro Manila’s main highway, is pegged at a maximum of P15 per passenger. For LRT 1, passengers are charged up to P20 each for a single journey; for LRT 2, the rate is pegged at P15.
http://business.inquirer.net/128269/mrt-lrt-fares-may-go-up-in-august-abaya
