MRT3 Fare Hike, Maintenance Bidding And Buyout #PublishingArticles

The present announcement of Department Order by DOTC Secretary Emilio Abaya made a wave of disappointments to all sectors of the Philippine society. The vast majority really are surprised and asking questions why the government’s doing this fare hike. In fact, in the pasts, chaos is proven to be the untimely subject for MRT3-EDSA.

It has been noted to all concerned leaders, media people, news companies and citizens of the Philippines, that for the past months, Secretary Emilio Abaya was very much alive with his planned strategies on how to tackled MRT3 problems and continued to move forward with his leadership for the good of the commuters. While at the same time, never had a wink of giving MRT Holdings its proposition for business unification. Even the Senate cannot twisted his firmed ways to solve this gigantic problem of the MRT3 drama that buyout was the only option.

The DOTC has allotted P81.5 million to procure 608 pieces of new 12-meter steel rails for MRT 3. Pending the awarding of the contract and the supply of the new rails, the MRT 3 is borrowing spare rails from the LRT 2 due to its depleted stocks of spare rails. The ways for these maintenance needed means it’s not totally monitor to provide the proper security to the train commuters. In fact, more breakdowns are recorded and needs immediate solutions.

Aside from the rail replacement, the government is also procuring a new maintenance contractor for the MRT 3 line. The DOTC has recently increased the approved budget for the three-year MRT 3 maintenance contract to P2.4 billion from P2.2 billion allocated during the failed first bidding. The new maintenance provider will be the one to replace worn out rails with new ones.

If these projections of DOTC are to be hoped for all Filipinos, the present situation could not be considered safe for train commuters. Likewise, the effect done by the government can cause disappointments if the fare hike will be apply this coming January 2015.

The bidding failure conformed to DOTC lacks of proper preparation in doing the MRT3 problems. Following the failure of bidding, the government is constrained to continue its month-to-month arrangement with Global APT for the continued maintenance of MRT 3. The year-long maintenance contract of Global-Autre Porte Technologies Inc. (Global APT) had expired last September 5. DoTC is paying Global APT P57 million for every month of their extended services, pending the awarding of the new maintenance contract.

The DOTC have done its strict compliance with regards to its present maintenance provider. Global APT has been heavily fined for the second half of its one-year contract due to the technical glitches that affected the MRT 3 operation. Global APT has been fined P27 million for the first half of its contract period and was recently fined P18 million when the communication system of the MRT 3 broke down last August 23, suspending the MRT 3 operations by nearly half day.

A new 3-year maintenance contract is also being procured and will be awarded in the first quarter of 2015, and the new tap-and-go ticketing system for all three lines will be operational by September 2015 at the latest.

The government has assured commuters that the probability of derailment along the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 is “minimal” despite the warning of foreign rail experts that assessed the current state of the aging mass transportation system. Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said derailment accident is not likely to happen along the MRT 3 line as predicted by the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) experts from Hong Kong due to the poor condition of the rail tracks.