Reduced EDSA bus routes eyed

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) proposed yesterday to reduce the number of bus routes from 34 to eight to ease traffic along EDSA.

Officials said the idea was to decongest traffic between Cubao in Quezon City and Magallanes in Makati City, which they said has the heaviest traffic volume.

LTFRB chairman Thompson Lantion yesterday met with Metro Manila and provincial bus companies to look for ways to reduce traffic along EDSA, Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare.

"We would like to lessen the 34 number of routes plying along EDSA to only eight major routes specially those buses coming from the north and south of Metro Manila," Lantion said in a statement.

The remaining routes would be: Alabang-Novaliches (serviced by 449 buses), Alabang-Malanday (140 buses), Alabang-Fairview (146 buses), Baclaran-Fairview (157 buses), Baclaran-Malanday (176 buses), Baclaran-Navotas (195 buses) and Baclaran-Novaliches via Congressional-Mindanao Avenues (145 buses), for a total of 1,840 buses.

Under the proposal, buses coming from the north such as Malanday, Novaliches, Navotas and others would ply their routes up to the Central Terminal, a ten-hectare lot between the North Avenue Metro Rail Transit Station and Quezon Avenue, in Quezon City.

Buses coming from Alabang Metropolis, meanwhile, would be limited to Baclaran up to Mall of Asia in Pasay City.

Their proposed terminal for both provincial and Metro Manila buses will be at Market! Market! at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

Some of the bus companies suggested a color coding scheme or odd-even number scheme for buses that would be allowed to enter EDSA.

Provincial Bus Operators Association of the Philippines (PBOAP) president Homer Mercado said the proposal would be relayed to their members and they were willing to do a one-week dry run in December. – Sandy Araneta