|
By Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
A railway contract that supposedly has put the
government at great disadvantage is delaying expansion plans for the
Metro Rail Transit Line 3, or MRT 3. The railway line runs from
North Avenue in Quezon City to Baclaran in Pasay City.
Roberto Lastimoso, the general manager of Metro
Rail Transit Authority, or MRTA, which operates MRT 3, said the
plans to expand the railway line were drawn up three years ago but
have been stalled by objections from Metro Rail Transit Corp., or
MRTC, which owns the assets of MRT 3.
Another option of the government to expand the
capacity of MRT 3, Lastimoso added, was the buyout of equity of the
railway line. Negotiations with MRTC in May bogged down, however.
“In a buyout, we can follow our expansion
plans,” the Metro Rail chief said.
MRTC is a consortium led by the Sobrepeña
family’s Fil-Estate Management. Other investors include Ayala Land
Inc., Anglo-Philippine Holdings Corp., Ramcar Inc. and Greenfield
Development Corp.
“The contract [with MRTC] is onerous to the
government . . . [the contract says] that any improvement, any
alteration, in the design and improvement in [MRT 3] facilities
should have the consent of the owners,” Lastimoso said.
He added that the government cannot procure
additional trains for MRT 3 because MRTC has the right of first
refusal under the contract.
MRTC, however, has no plans to purchase
additional trains, according to Lastimoso. The railway
consortium’s stand, he said, has led MRT 3 to seek the legal
opinion of the Department of Justice on the government’s plan to
buy more trains through the Department of Transportation and
Communications.
MRT buyout
Buying out MRT 3 was raised because the
government can no longer afford to subsidize the railway line’s
operations. The government is paying the Sobrepeña-led consortium
$3.33 million a month representing equity payment and $1.43 million
a month for maintenance costs.
The government, through the Transportation and
Finance departments, entered into an agreement with the consortium
to buy out the build-lease-transfer (BLT) contract of the MRTC for
$865 million, ahead of the period stipulated in the concession
agreement.
The early buyout will result in $380 million in
savings for the government, according to the Finance department. An
earlier study, though, showed that the savings can run to $1
billion.
Lastimoso said if the government failed to buy
back MRT 3, it would pay $10 million in monthly equity payments by
2010 and $1.6 million for maintenance costs.
If the negotiations bogged down again, the two
parties will maintain the BLT contract guarantee of a 15-percent
return on investment. The contract stipulated that the consortium
should be paid for 25 years.
The government’s plan to buy more trains
stemmed from commuter congestion at MRT 3 stations as a result of
higher fuel prices and record-high inflation. Costlier fuel and food
have forced many, including car owners, to use trains and other
public vehicles to save on expenses.
MRTC must negotiate
According to Lastimoso, the Justice department
last week issued an opinion, directing the Sobrepeña-led consortium
and MRT 3 to negotiate within 30 days.
“We will follow it [the department’s
opinion], because we have a contract [with MRTC],” he said.
“The [Justice department] said this [30 days]
is the reasonable period for [the Transportation department] to
assume that MRTC is not interested anymore to exercise its right of
first refusal,” Lastimoso added.
The consortium has until August 9 to decide if
they will purchase additional trains.
Its officials were unavailable for comment when
contacted by The Manila Times.
“The situation [procurement of more trains] is
a matter of public interest, public concern, and it is dangerous
already [given the passenger congestion]. The government will buy
[the trains] if they [members of the Sobrepeña-led consortium] will
not acquire additional trains,” Lastimoso said.
The Metro Rail chief added that the government
intends to buy 73 light-rail cars with three minutes headway or
four-car trains with 2.5 minutes headway, which cost $3 million
each.
“We are ready [to buy] but it will take
another three years if you will order a new car from the time you
order and to the time of delivery. We are looking at second-hand
cars,” he said.
At present, MRT 3 uses three-car trains with
three minutes headway.
The additional trains are expected to be
delivered by 2009 and will be operational by 2010.
Lastimoso said MRT 3 has exceeded its daily
passenger capacity.
He explained that the railway line is designed
to carry only about 22,500 passengers per peak hour per direction,
or PPHD, but that existing demand has ballooned to 26,500
passengers. The maximum load of 22,500 was breached in 2004.
Data from the Metro Rail showed that from April
to June 2008, the number of passengers rose 11.26 percent to 37.17
million, with a monthly average of 12.39 million and a daily average
of 470,000 passengers.
During the first quarter of 2008, the number of
passengers grew by only 2.24 percent to 36.08 million, compared to
the 35.29 million during the same period in 2007.
Lastimoso said “emergency capacity
expansion” is needed to meet the projected per peak-hour demand of
30,031 passengers by 2010.
MRT 3 was built to speed up the commute and
alleviate chronic traffic congestion along Epifanio de los Santos
Avenue, or EDSA. But the current capacity of the railway line is
inadequate to meet the first goal, let alone the second. The
line’s tracks run almost the entire stretch of the avenue.
Currently, MRT 3 has a fleet of 73 Czech-made
air-conditioned cars, of which up to 60 three-car trains operate
daily. The trains run at a top speed of 65 kilometers per hour to
cover 13 stations in about 30 minutes, stopping for 25 seconds to 35
seconds per station.
Lastimoso said the government plans to expand
the North Avenue station to prevent passenger congestion there. The
station is the northernmost in the MRT 3 line.
“We have to increase the area of the North
Avenue station, because it is not a terminal, it was designed to be
a station but it has become a terminal,” he added.
The government plans to spend P100 million to
acquire a 500-square meter land beside the North Avenue station and
put a two-story building there.
Extended peak hours
To decongest its stations during peak hours,
MRTA has decided to extend operations between 6:30 a.m. and 9:30
a.m. and between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
At present, the peak hours are between 7 a.m.
and 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., during which 20 three-car trains
leave every three minutes.
At the North Avenue station, the busiest station
during the 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. rush-hour period, about 23,000 to 25,000
passengers climbed onboard going south.
Beyond peak hours, Lastimoso said, the system
uses 15 three-car trains that roll on every five minutes.
He added that Tespi Corp., the maintenance
operator of MRT 3, has granted the request of the government to
extend the peak-hour period and for the operator to deploy
additional trains at no cost.
Lastimoso explained that under the contract of
Tespi, for every additional car used beyond the peak hours, the
government will pay $1,000 per car. “If you need 15 cars, its
$15,000 per hour.”
The government is also studying deployment of
additional trains beyond the peak hours to ease overcrowding in the
stations.
“We encourage passengers to come early to
avoid overcrowding,” Lastimoso said. He announced that the
government has no plans to raise fares.
Lastimoso said public subsidy amounts to P42 per
passenger. With a daily ridership of at least 470,000, the
government pays at least P19.74 million a day at the minimum fare of
P10 per person.
MRT 3 collects an average of P4 million to P5
million a day.
|
