No Sunday operations for LRT 2

The Megatren will stop running for 11 Sundays starting Sept. 21, the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) announced yesterday.

LRTA Administration Teddy Cruz Jr. said the suspension of the Sunday operations is in line with the goal of the agency to open the entire LRT 2 system from Santolan in Pasig City to Recto in Manila by the second quarter of next year.

"We have to stop the operations on Sunday until Nov. 30 to speed up the remaining work in Phase 1 (Santolan to Cubao) as well as allow enough time for our contractors to finish integration works linking the four operational stations to the seven remaining stations covering Phase 2 of the purple line," Cruz said.

Right now the remaining works are being done on workdays thus affecting the operations of the system. But starting next week, these will be done only on Sundays.

The seven other stations that run the stretch of Quezon City, San Juan and Manila are Betty Go-Belmonte, Gilmore, J. Ruiz, V. Mapa, Pureza, Legarda and Recto.

The Recto station on the southern end connects to the Doroteo Jose station of LRT 1 which runs from Monumento in Caloocan City to Baclaran in Parañaque City.

The target date of the completion for the entire 13.8-km modern and computerized mass rail transit system is the summer of 2004.

The proposal to suspend Sunday operations was submitted to the LRTA chief by operations an d maintenance manager Engr. Ed San Juan.