The Department of Transportation (DOTr) plans to bundle the operations and maintenance (O&M) of Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 and Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2 when the rail systems are privatized in 2025.
According to Transportation undersecretary for Railways Cesar Chavez, the policy direction is to craft a 25- to 30-year concession agreement for MRT 3 and bundle it with LRT Line 2.
“Our plan is to combine the good cake and the not so good cake to make it attractive. We need to decide between now and July 2024,” he said.
The build-lease-transfer agreement between the government and Metro Rail Transit Corp. is set to lapse in 2025.
Chavez said once the government decides to bundle the railway systems, the 16.9-kilometer MRT 3 will be transferred to Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), which operates and maintains LRT Line 1.
The government operates the MRT3, while the MRTC, owned by Metro Rail Transit Holdings II Inc. led by businessman Robert John Sobrepeña, designed and constructed the EDSA rail transit system.
Formed in 1995, the MRTC built MRT 3 in October 1996, completed it in December 1999 and started full operations in July 2020.
The MRTC and the government, through then the Department of Transportation and Communications, signed the BLT agreement in 1997 to construct and maintain the MRT 3.
The partnership required the DOTr to hold the franchise and run the system, particularly the operation and the collection of fares. The MRTC built the system, maintained the same to guarantee the availability of the trains at specified headway at specified hours and procured the required spare parts, while the government paid MRTC monthly fees for a certain number of years.
The MRTC financed the construction of the modern rail system stretching along EDSA’s 10.5-meter median from North Ave. in Quezon City to Taft Avenue in Pasay City. It pumped P4.49 billion worth of equity into the project.
The train system is designed to carry in excess of 23,000 passengers per hour per direction, initially, expandable to accommodate 48,000 passengers per hour, per direction.
As for LRT Line 2, it was built at a cost of P31 billion in soft loans from the government of Japan.
The 13.8km mass transit line traverses five cities in Metro Manila namely Pasig, Marikina, Quezon City, San Juan and Manila) along the major thoroughfares of Marcos Highway, Aurora Boulevard, Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard, Legarda and Recto Avenue.
