The rehabilitation and maintenance of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 is expected to be finished by June 2025, ahead of the government’s planned privatization of the system’s operations.
MRT-3 general manager Oscar Bongon said the ongoing maintenance of the MRT-3 system by Sumitomo Corp. is expected to be completed by June 2025.
Bongon said the extension of the pocket track at Taft Station in Pasay City and the turnback facility at North Ave. Station would be completed by June. These improvements will enable the system to accommodate four-car trains.
Switching from the current three-car train sets to four-car sets will boost daily ridership to over half a million passengers.
MRT-3 handled more than 135 million rides in 2024, higher than 129 million in 2023.
In May 2023, the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Sumitomo Corp. and Oriental Consultants Global signed the P7.38-billion extended contracts for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the line until 2025.
The scope of the new contract was expanded to include the extension of rail lines and the installation of signals to the common station, which is shared with other lines, and the expansion of the pocket track necessary for increasing the number of railcars in a train (from three-car to four-car), in addition to the maintenance of the main line.
Planned privatization
Meanwhile, the privatization of the rail line is in the works, with the terms of reference (TOR) for both its solicited and unsolicited proposals being ironed out.
Bongon said the TOR is being reviewed by the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center, the Asian Development Bank and the DOTr.
“The terms of reference for concession are being developed now. There are only two goals because someone in the private sector submitted an unsolicited proposal. That is under review by the PPP Center, ADB and DOTr,” Bongon said over the DOTr’s Sakay Na! program on Radio Pilipinas.
At present, the government operates MRT 3, while the MRTC, owned by Metro Rail Transit Holdings II Inc. and led by businessman Robert John Sobrepeña, was responsible for the design and construction of the EDSA rail transit system.
Formed in 1995, MRTC started building MRT 3 in October 1996, completed it in December 1999 and started full operations in July 2020.
MRTC and the government through the Department of Transportation and Communications signed the BLT agreement in 1997 to construct and maintain MRT 3.
The build-lease-transfer agreement with Metro Rail Transit Corp. for MRT-3 will expire this year.
No fare hike
MRT-3 officer-in-charge director for operations Ofelia Astrera also assured the rail line’s passengers that there are no fare hike petitions from its management.
“Right now, we don’t expect a fare increase. In previous years there were petitions, there would have been two [train] lines at the same time. But there was just a little technicality. Right now, we are just waiting for the direction of the DOTr central office,” Astrera said.
“But for now, we don’t have a fare increase,” she said.
The MRT-3’s base fare is at P13. End-to-end trip from North Ave. Station to Taft Station is at P28.
