DOTC justifies MRT fare hike

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) said that any increase in fares at the EDSA-bound Metro Rail Transit (MRT) that will be imposed this coming October will be benchmarked with the fares of air-conditioned buses plying EDSA.

Dante Velasco, DOTC Undersecretary for Public Information, said that the benchmarking of the new fare structure of the MRT with the maximum fares for passengers of air-conditioned buses along EDSA was enough assurance that any fare hike at the rail line would be reasonable.

“We’re looking at a fare range of P20 to P30,” Velasco told The STAR in an interview. The same fare range, he said, was being looked at for the increase in fares at the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 and LRT Line 2.

“When we say that is our benchmark, we will not go too far from that,” Velasco said.

It was learned that the maximum fare of air-conditioned buses playing EDSA was set at around 22 to P25 pesos.

Velasco said that from the results of an informal random survey the DOTC has conducted of such a fare range, the feedback has been “good”.

The survey, he said, asked passengers if they were willing to continue patronizing the MRT with the higher fare but with improved facilities and services at a higher fare rate with a maximum of P30.

Velasco stressed that with the higher fares, the MRT management could be able to make some improvements that would upgrade the services and the equipment at the MRT, as well as the LRT Lines 1 and 2.

However, Velasco said that the final fare structure was still being studied by three separate study groups of the DOTC Planning Service; the Planning Service of the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) which operates LRT Lines 1 and 2, and the Transportation Science Society of the Philippines.

The study of the three groups, he said, covered the conduct of “simulation exercises”, and a computation of the figures relating to the revenues of the MRT and the LRTA given the new fare rates and a certain ridership volume.