With the second of 48 light rail vehicles for the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 system assembled and set to be tested this month, passengers will soon have shorter waiting times at stations.
“Commuters will experience increased passenger convenience and service reliability with the arrival of more new light rail vehicles (LRVs). If the evaluation of the first set is found to be satisfactory, we are expecting one new train to be operational by the end of this quarter,” said Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Jun Abaya.
Once the necessary checks on the different electrical components are completed within the week, the vehicle will be subjected to dynamic testing to ensure the reliability of parts. This includes the required 5,000-kilometer run, which will be done on the main line during non-revenue hours.
Meanwhile, two more LRVs will be delivered by February, and then four per month will be shipped from March until January 2017.
“With mobility a priority to the DOTC, we are hoping to provide more available trains to the riding public through the 48 additional LRVs—an improvement that should have been done by the system’s private owner, Metro Rail Transit Corporation, in the mid-2000s—in addition to system upgrades and better maintenance works,” Abaya added.
The 48 new LRVs are part of the DOTC-MRT3 capacity expansion project, which will substantially ease the MRT-3 system’s congestion by boosting system capacity to over 800,000 daily passengers.
—From the Department of Transportation and Communications
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