As part of the promise to rehabilitate Metro Manila’s most used railway system, the Metro Rail Transit III (MRT-3) train operations will close early this Saturday (February 28) and will open late on Sunday (March 1). This is to give way to rail replacement works, as announced by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) on Thursday.
Secretary of Transportation Jun Abaya said that this in light of the management’s effort to enhance safety and minimize glitches, and have chosen the weekend schedule to diminish inconvenience to the riding public.
“Operations will be close from 9pm this Saturday until 12:00 p.m. on Sunday. We will use 150 meters’ worth of stabling rails from the depot to replace the more critical portions of the mainline between Taft Avenue and Magallanes,” MRT-3 General Manager, Roman Buenafe explained. As for the safety of the passengers, he proposed to switch the worn-out mainline rails with the stabling rails.
More early-close and late-open weekends will be implemente in the coming months as planned by the DOTC and MRT-3. During the actual works today, time-and-motion study will be conducte to see the flow of the people in different times, as a preparation for the more weekends to come.
“We will firm up our schedule after this weekend and announce it to the public. In the meantime, we would like to reassure our riders that government is taking the necessary steps to rehabilitate and improve the MRT,” Abaya stated.
By June 2015, the transport agencies will receive the recently procured 7,296 linear meters’ worth of brand new steel rail. These will be utilize for further rail replacement works later this year to better ensure the railway’s safety and reliability.
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