Given the frequent mishaps on the MRT 3 network in recent weeks, I think they should have a Plan B in case MRT 3 becomes totally inoperable. Of course there is no Plan B, and DOTC will not admit it is inoperable even if it is. They are likely to put public safety on the line to cover up incompetence and save face.
I received this e-mail from one of my readers, J. Morelos about his recent MRT experience. I am afraid MRT 3 will be inoperable sooner than the arrival of new train coaches from that Chinese supplier. But even if the new coaches arrive sooner, there are many other things in the MRT 3 that require a lot of fixing… the signaling system, for instance.
Here is that very informative e-mail I hope P-Noy will read.
Boo,
The MRT is in a bloody mess. I haven’t ridden the MRT for quite sometime. I had some free time yesterday and I thought of going to Glorietta and walk around Greenbelt.
I had my driver drop me off at the Quezon Ave. Station of MRT. I was surprised to find a huge number of people at 12 noon in that station. This is the first time I saw so many people in the Quezon Ave. station and at noontime which is usually not a busy hour.
I am a senior and so was immediately able to ride in the first car which was reserved for seniors. But what was usually a 25 minute trip to the Ayala Avenue station took well over an hour.
We had a 20 minute stop in the Shaw Blvd Station and another 20 minute stop in the Guadalupe Station. The train was also traveling at a very slow speed.
When I went back at around 3:30 p.m., there was a very long line outside Ayala Station, but since I am a senior they let me in immediately. I went to the first car reserved for seniors and I saw an MRT employee holding a radio.
I asked him what was wrong with the MRT, he said their signaling equipment was out of order and so whenever a train has departed from Ayala Station, that’s the only time he would radio their Pasay Station to send the next train to prevent accidents.
I guess the MRT is only operating at around 30 percent of their regular capacity. Because of poor maintenance they have turned an ALREADY BAD SITUATION into a NIGHTMARE for the ordinary passenger.
I understand that the MRT used to be maintained by Sumitomo Co. but said company was dropped and new company suspected to be owned by officials of the DOTC and MRT was given the contract to maintain the MRT.
It is obvious this company cannot maintain the MRT properly. Last week some commuters were injured when an MRT train braked suddenly, probably because of the faulty signaling equipment.
How come the gen. manager of the MRT, who was denounced by the Czech ambassador for an alleged bribery attempt, is still running the MRT as if nothing has happened? Where is P-Noy’s Daang Matuwid here?
I think around 600,000 people ride the MRT everyday, and so on a given week, millions of people ride the MRT. Why are all these people being sacrificed and their safety risked?
The present situation of the MRT is in the front pages of our newspapers during the last few days, but there is no mention that their signaling equipment is out of order. There are pictures of tents being provided by the MRT for the long lines of waiting passengers outside the MRT stations.
Filipinos are very patient people. In other countries what is happening daily in the MRT would have PROVOKED RIOTS in the streets. The top officials of the DOTC are denounced daily by columnists in various newspapers… how come P-Noy is not doing anything about this? He should have fired the DOTC people a long time ago. I suspect he doesn’t even read the newspapers.
I agree with Sen. Serge Osmeña that P-Noy is an awful manager. The Senate is presently investigating the DOTC, the senators should recommend that the top officials of the DOTC and the MRT be fired for incompetence.
The government cannot run anything. The MRT should be privatized so that it can be run professionally.
I don’t know if they were able to fix the signals by now. I figure they are operating at 1/3 their previous capacity and so there are very long lines outside several stations.
In case they cannot fix the signals, then I am sure there will be a big outcry from the riding public and I hope heads will roll.
What can I say? I have been writing about the maintenance problems of MRT 3 for years now. This is the price commuters are now paying for past sins of government managers even before P-Noy.
During P-Noy’s watch, the failure to act quickly on the obvious problems of the system is responsible for the current untenable situation. Aggravating that is the decision to reject a good proposal to rehabilitate the system from the private sector, from no less than the Metro Pacific Group.
One after another, components of the system will fail. The problem with the signaling system is serious. It could cause a collision and serious injuries with possible loss of lives.
I understand they also need to fix the tracks. The electrical system is also not dependable… transformer burnouts have happened. They don’t have enough spare parts. The wheels turn oblong from overuse at beyond prescribed passenger load. They have been resorting to fixing those wheels in the machine shop to make them round again.
I have written in the past that the MRT 3 is a terrible tragedy waiting to happen. A normal and responsible manager wouldn’t be able to sleep nights just thinking about an apocalypse happening during rush hours.
But it seems MRT managers don’t worry about those things. Indeed, the MRT GM said it is wrong to blame MRT management for that braking accident last week that injured a dozen or so passengers. Blame the driver, he said.
That was an unfortunate reaction. The driver is an extension of the management. There is such a thing as command responsibility. We have not heard from the driver why he braked as hard as he did. Maybe he was trying to prevent a more serious accident… one that may be due to maintenance problems.
The MRT GM had words about maintenance too. He said he also isn’t responsible for that because there is a maintenance contractor. But who supervises the contractor? For that matter, who chose the contractor? In fact, it seems that contractor was pre-selected by the same management.
Other potential bidders were not given enough time to prepare a proper bid, so were unable to bid. MRT management justified its selection on nothing more than a telephone canvass they misrepresented as a bidding.
Any which way they try to evade responsibility, there is no escaping the responsibility for a serious accident one of these days. If DOTC officials have any sense of public responsibility, they will ask an independent expert to evaluate the safety of running MRT 3 as it is now.
Then I hope they will have the guts to close the system down if required. Of course that will cause chaos with all those displaced commuters. This is why they need a Plan B so they don’t end up running around like headless chickens, if and when, that option to close down becomes inevitable.
I don’t know about them but if I were Sec Abaya or even P-Noy, I wouldn’t want the blood of hundreds if not thousands of commuters on my hands if something terrible happens, as it seems likely to happen any time now.
Bahala na? When you are talking of 600,000 lives, I don’t think you can say Bahala na si Batman!
Summer
From the Professional Heckler.
IT’S SUMMER! It’s so hot out there people are flocking to the Senate just to be near something shady.
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco