(Eagle News)–The improvements in the country’s mass transport system will be felt by commuters “gradually” as the government addresses the “20-year infrastructure backlog.”
This is according to the Department of Transportation, which issued a statement after leftist group Bayan said the country was experiencing a “mass transit crisis.”
According to the DOTr, it was, under the present administration, “employing a catch-up plan to expedite the construction and operationalization of various transport infrastructure projects in the aviation, railways, road and maritime sectors.”
The DOTr said this includes the construction of the Metro Manila Subway, the Metro Rail Transit-7, the Light Rail Transit-1 Cavite extension, the LRT-2 east extension, Philippine National Railways Clark Phase 1, among others.
“By far, we have completed 64 airport projects nationwide with 133 more ongoing; built and started operations of one (1) landport; and completed 222 commercial and social/tourism port projects, with 122 more ongoing,” the DOTr said.
The DOTr said once rehabilitation of the MRT-3 is completed in particular, the number of running trains will increase from the current 15 to 20, speed will be doubled from 30kph to 60kph, and ridership will rise from 250,000 to 600,000 per day.
“We encourage our countrymen to resort to ‘bayanihan’ rather than ‘turuan’ o ‘sisihan,'” the DOTr said.
“Rest assured that the DOTr and its attached agencies are united in doing everything it can to bring back dignity in commuting, and to provide Filipinos a comfortable life,” the DOTr added.
