MRT eyes bigger capacity, faster trains in 2017

The MRT3 prototype assembled at MRT Taft station in Pasay City. CONTRIBUTED FILE PHOTO

The Metro Rail Transit-3 (MRT-3) management hopes to expand the train system’s daily capacity to 800,000 passengers by the end of next year following the upgrade of its power supply and the arrival of new trains.

MRT-3 officer in charge Deo Manalo said on Tuesday that they expected the remaining 14 of the 48 Dalian coaches ordered by the Aquino administration to arrive in the country early next year.

According to Manalo, two coaches are scheduled to arrive this weekend and once the trains’ signaling system had been configured, these could be used as early as the first quarter of 2017.

Manalo said that they were also working on upgrading the substation supplying power to the MRT-3 line since at present, it can accommodate only three-car trains. With the upgrade, they would be able to run 24 four-car trains daily.

20 trains

On average, the MRT-3 runs 20 trains daily at a speed of at least 40 kilometers per hour with a headway of 4.5 minutes. Since the start of the month, the number of passengers taking the train line which runs from Taft in Pasay City to North Avenue in Quezon City has averaged up to 441,000 every day.

Manalo said that with the upgrade, they would be able to accommodate up to 800,000 passengers daily and run the trains at 60 kph with a headway of just 2.5 minutes. –Jovic Yee