MORE than 400,000 passengers daily will benefit from the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) more than double its current average ridership.
MRT-3 Officer-in-Charge, General Manager Michael Capati, said the MRT-3 currently accommodates 248,000 to 260,000 passengers a day, with an average fare collection of PHP2.7 million.
With the MRT-3 set to offer free rides to all passengers from March 28 to April 30, he said the average number of passengers per day may increase to 300,000 to 400,000 per day, depending on the Covid-19 pandemic situation.
“Ready naman po ang ating pasilidad, ang ating capacity, kaya po nagte-test na po tayo ng four-car trains. Dahil ang four-car trains po natin can accommodate a maximum of 1,576 passengers,” Capati said.
The current three-car train setup of the MRT-3 can accommodate around 1,100 passengers per train.
To date, he said 48 out of 72 CKD train cars have been overhauled, with the rest expected to be completed within the year, while nine Dalian trains are “provisionally accepted”.
To ensure that the MRT-3 can accommodate as many passengers as possible during the first day of the free ride program, he said two four-car trains will be dispatched from MRT-3’s during the peak hours of 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
There will also be 18 three-car trains that will traverse the route between North Avenue, Quezon City and Taft Avenue in Pasay City.
Capati said the four-car train setup is the future of MRT-3, with plans to combine the old Czech CKD train cars with the newer Chinese Dalian train cars for four-car operations.
“From three-car train sets, magiging (it will be) four-car train sets. So, slowly, ina-achieve natin ‘yan (From three-car train sets to four-car train sets. Slowly, we will achieve that),” Capati said.
The remaining 39 are to undergo further testing.
To avail of free rides, passengers must have a stored-value Beep card or a single-trip card.
The MRT-3 will be available for free rides at all hours, except on April 12 to 17 when it goes on its annual Holy Week maintenance shutdown.
