DOTC hopes ban on purchase of new trains lifted soon

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is pushing for the lifting of an order issued by a lower court preventing it from acquiring additional trains for the Metro Rail Transit line 3 (MRT3).

Michael Arthur Sagcal, DOTC spokesperson, said the agency is hoping that the Makati City regional trial court would lift the 20-day temporary order of protection preventing the agency from acquiring 48 brand new light rail vehicles (LRVs) from Dalian Locomotive Stock & Rolling Co. Ltd CNR Group of China.

 â€œWe hope that the order preventing us from adding brand new LRVs will be lifted immediately, for the public’s sake. The DOTC will be able to increase MRT3’s capacity within two to three years starting from the time that the court allows us to proceed. Since more passengers will be able to take the train, EDSA traffic should be mitigated considerably,” Sagcal said.

Traffic is expected to be heavy with the start of the construction of the P27 billion Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 project and the P15 billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) expressway being undertaken by diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and the P18 billion toll road connecting the North Luzon and South Luzon expressway of infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC).

The DOTC awarded a P3.8 billion contract to the Chinese firm last month but Makati City RTC Branch 66 presiding judge Joselito Villarosa issued a temporary order of protection preventing the agency from implementing the contract due to the petition filed by a shareholder of Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC).

Sagcal pointed out that the project would take two to three years to complete because the LRVs would still be manufactured.

“A prototype will be tested on the system within 12 to 18 months, followed by the delivery of three to four units per succeeding month.  This means that traffic decongestion can already start by 2015.  All we’re waiting for is the court’s go signal,” he said.

The DOTC spokesman said the project would increase the number of trips of MRT3 per hour to 24 from 20 translating to a 60 percent increase in the number of passengers per hour per direction (PPHPD).

“This means that, from the current 23,640 people who can avail of the rail service every hour heading towards one direction, the project will make it possible for 37,824 passengers to enjoy this convenience,” he said.

Currently, the average daily ridership of MRT3 is already over 560,000, and its highest single-day passenger count is 620,000. The mass transit system was designed to handle 350,000 per day.

“The project will not only help ease the gridlock on EDSA, it will also make the MRT3 experience much more bearable for its riders,” he said.

Sagcal said the DOTC believes that it has sufficient legal grounds to proceed with the addition of new LRVs in line with public interest.

“The project is urgently needed after MRTC failed to add any LRVs to the rail system despite DOTC’s demands for it do so since 2007,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Chinese rail expert questioned the capability of Dalian Locomotive to deliver the required trains for MRT3 as it lacks experience in manufacturing trains with articulated bogies, the flexible parts where each railway car joins the next segment.

An articulated bogie is the key component which enables the entire train to turn sharp corners, as is the case in the MRT3 line. Functional failure of the articulated bogie may cause serious accidents, like derailment.

Lee Shengli, a retired expert from Chinese Ministry of Railways, said in a statement that Dalian Locomotive is known for its work on diesel locomotives, which are their main products.

“They don’t have experience in the production of light rail vehicles with articulated bogies, and they have not delivered any metro vehicles or light rail vehicles out of China,” he added.

“It is very important that the reliability and safety of the technology and the key components are operationally proven, and the train manufacturer can only collect sufficient manufacturing experience by doing [the job over time],” Lee said.