LRTA belies lawmakers' claims on 'track-less' trains

MANILA, Philippines - The Light Rail Transit Authority debunked yesterday claims made by some congressmen that the LRTA unnecessarily purchased 48 new trains worth $81.6 million in 2006, causing them to be unused for lack of new railway tracks.

LRTA administrator Melquiades Robles said they procured the 48 coaches under their capacity expansion project for LRT Line 1 running from Baclaran, Parañaque City to Monumento, Caloocan City.

The capacity expansion, he said, has enabled them to accommodate the surge in passengers that started in mid-2008, when oil prices spiked and public utility vehicle fares increased.

“All the 48 coaches we bought three years ago are now being used to more than double the number of passengers we carry on our LRT Line 1... Not one coach is sitting idly by waiting to be used for the Cavite extension project, which is still on the drawing board,” Robles said.

A number of lawmakers, led by Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza, had questioned the LRTA for the purchase. Daza said the trains were for the future LRT Line 1 south extension project that will extend the line from Baclaran to Bacoor, Cavite.

Robles stressed that the LRT Line 1 capacity expansion project, which hiked the rail line’s maximum capacity to as many as one million passengers a day, was totally different from the Cavite extension project.

Robles said the LRTA will “need at least 44 more coaches for the Cavite project on top of the 48 trains we purchased years ago for Line 1.”

Without the new trains, Robles said that they would also encounter safety concerns at the LRT Line 1 such as those facing the EDSA-bound Metro Rail Transit (MRT) or the LRT Line 3, which is struggling with daily overloading because of a lack of trains to accommodate a steadily rising number of passengers.

“In 2004, LRTA could only accommodate around 260,000 passengers per day. With the new trains, Line 1 recently recorded a ridership of 585,000 passengers in one day, surpassing all previous records in more than 20 years of existence,” he said.

Robles said the congressmen may have been misled by a losing bidder for the P6.5-billion LRT Line 1-MRT interconnection project, who was present in the House committee on oversight hearing the other day when the allegation was made by the lawmakers.

“Our biddings (for the interconnection project) are so transparent they were videotaped, witnessed by World Bank officials, and attended by representatives from the Church, the Philippine Contractors’ Association, and various government agencies,” he said.   – Rainier Allan Ronda