Transportation expert: Cebu needs LRT now

CEBU, Philippines-  A transportation scientist believes that it is high time for Cebu to have a Light Rail Transit before the traffic problem reaches its boiling point.

“Yes, it’s about time because Cebu has no enough roads,” said Rene Santiago, president of Bellweather Advisory.

Santiago, who was one of the speakers during the three-day 11th International Conference of Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, said there were several attempts in the past to put up LRT in Cebu but it did not materialize and he blamed the “imperial Manila” for it.

According to him, every time the idea of building an LRT in Cebu is discussed the people in Manila would usually oppose it saying, “it’s only provincial.”

“Cebu should have LRT before you reach the crisis that Manila now has. The traffic crisis in Metro Manila reaches in a boiling point in the last three weeks and it’s not going to disappear,” Santiago said.

Santiago said if an LRT project is done well it can be operational in five years. He said it is the most logical to decongest traffic from Talisay City in the south to Consolacion in north.

He recalled some of the failed attempts to build LRT in Cebu and the reasons why it did not succeed.

Santiago said there was a pre-feasibility study done by the Department of Transportation and Cebu Province in 1993 but did not gain traction because it has no sponsor and the study had no gravitas.

There was also a pre-feasibility study for Monorail System in 1998 but it did not gain traction as well for lack of sponsor.]

AMA made an unsolicited proposal in 2009 for a 19 km Cebu LRT from Tabunok, Talisay City to Mandaue City.

Santiago said that this P2.7 billion project failed to get the approval from DOTC. It was also rejected by Cebu City in the same year in favor of the Bus Rapid Transit.

First District Representative Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas included the Cebu LRT in the Private-Private Partnership portfolio in September 2013 but was ignored by DOTC and PPP Center.  (FREEMAN)