Consultants propose temporary route at SRP

CEBU, Philippines - The consultants of the Asian Development Bank-Cities Development Initiative for Asia proposed a temporary public transport route at the South Road Properties that must be established by 2013 to provide access to early phases of development while the main line of the Bus Rapid Transit is pending.

The interim public transport route shall only be temporary because it will be developed into a full BRT once the “main street,” initially from Bulacao to Talamban, is established.

The proposed SRP-BRT will be based on the designs and system of the main street because both will later be connected.

The ADB-CDIA in the final report of the phase II of its Transport Strategy Development Study for the Cebu SRP, came up with an interim public transport proposal because the BRT main street will roll out in 2014 yet while the developers at the SRP are expected to build the mall, condominiums and other developments by 2013.

The developments at the SRP are seen to increase travel demand by early 2013.

The temporary public transport route shall address the traffic and accessibility problem.

The ADB-CDIA, in its report, said the SRP transport system may adopt a three-phased approach which comprise of three different approaches depending on its practicability and feasibility.

The first phase will be a bus service that would operate as a conventional bus service connecting the North Terminal – SM- Downtown – SRP, which may potentially extended up to Talisay City.

The interim phase, which is the High Quality Public Transport Route, is more advanced than the conventional bus service. The High Quality Public Transport Route might be upgraded to full BRT or may be a model for public transport improvement in areas where BRT cannot be established.

Whether to put an a temporary public mass transport system at the SRP earlier or just wait for the establishment of the full BRT line now lies with the Cebu City government.

The SRP-BRT, once completed, is expected to serve over 50,000 passengers per hour that are expected to come to SRP once SM builds its mall here similar to Mall of Asia in Manila and once Filinvest develops its Citta di Mare.

The ADB-CDIA projects that SM Mall and Filinvest developments will each likely generate over 100,000 trips per day.

These projected increase in the travel demand can be accommodated by the BRT which is initially estimated to cost around USD60 million with an operating cost of USD6 million per annum. This estimate was done during the first study.

ABD-CDIA consultants said the costing of the project will be provided after the full-blown feasibility study which is expected to commence by November this year. — (FREEMAN)