DOTC bares plan to link LRT-1 and MRT lines

Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez announced yesterday the details of a plan to finally link the LRT-1 and MRT-3 commuter railway lines.

The move is in line with the Arroyo administration’s policies to promote mass transportation systems so as to alleviate the burdens of daily commuting for millions of employees, students and other sectors.

"When these two railway systems are connected together," Alvarez said, "they will form a complete, electric-powered transportation loop around Metro Manila which will greatly benefit the riders of public utility vehicles, who are the great majority of our commuting public. Anyone who wants to travel between any two points along combined route system that covers EDSA and Taft Avenue from the south to Monumento in the north will have a fast, clean, affordable means to doing so."

The plan was submitted to Secretary Alvarez yesterday by Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC), builder of the existing 17-kilometer EDSA MRT from Taft to North Avenue. It calls for a 5.2 kilometer stretch to be built up to the interconnection point at Monumento. The two railway systems currently intersect only at Taft Avenue stations in Pasay City.

MRTC senior vice president Paul Daza said that the technical and financial plan they submitted would utilize a build-transfer mechanism that would see completion of the link within about two years from the start of construction. Between EDSA MRT and LRT-1 are projected by studies to handle between 600,000 and one million daily passengers once the interconnection is made.