(Eagle News) — The Department of Transportation will study the proposal of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development to extend operating hours of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) systems to serve more commuters.
The proposal for the extension of operations hours of the two major rail transportation systems in the country’s capital was made by Quezon City Representative Winston Castelo who chairs the House committee.
“Pag-aralan ulit natin kasi nag-iba na most likely ang ridership profiles between nung unang sinubukan ‘yan and ngayon kasi alam naman nating talagang tumaas ang volume nung mga commuters natin (We will study that again because most likely the ridership profiles when we first tried that and at this time would most likely be different. We know that the volume of commuters now really has increased),” DoTr Undersecretary TJ Batan said.
The current operating hours of the LRT and MRT are from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 PM daily.
“We should exert the powers of the Congress and ask them to operate past 10 (p.m.) because the bulk of the commuters are also still away from their homes,” Castelo said.
Castelo also filed House Bill No. 8859 dubbed as the “Government Officials Public Transportation Duty,” which requires all government officials to take public transport at least once a month.
He said that this was to convince the management of LRT and MRT to extend operations for at least another two hours in the evening as officials would be able to make a proper judgment on the issues on the transportation especially if they will experience how to be caught in traffic jams in Metro Manila streets.
“Because how would they be able to know the gravity of the problem kung may mga wangwang sila, may mga hawi boys po sila,” the lawmaker said.
“What is important is that they should be feeling and experiencing ito pong hardship so that they will act with dispatch and with sincerity. So, we do not allow these government officials to relax while they (the public) are suffering,” Castelo added.