The government’s foregone revenue from the free ride service at the Metro Rail Transit line 3 (MRT-3) which will be extended until June 30 is expected to reach over P450 million.
The free ride service at the MRT-3 began on March 28, 2022, and is extended anew for the third month until June 30, throughout the railway’s operating hours from 4:40 a.m. to 10:10 p.m.
In a virtual press briefing, Michael Capati, MRT-3 officer-in-charge general manager and director for operations, said the system’s estimated losses during the free ride program from March 28 to May 24 amounting to P286 million will be funded through the subsidy budget in the General Appropriations Act which stood at P7.1 billion.
The extension for another one month would result in additional P150 million to P180 million estimated revenue loss, Capati said.
He said the revenue loss is computed based on the number of passengers that benefited from the free ride services= which reached 15.7 million from March 28 to May 24, excluding the government’s daily operating cost. The average weekday ridership during the period was 315,334.
In light of the positive feedback from commuters who benefited from the program and to continue serving more passengers affected by the rising fuel prices and inflation, the MRT-3 and the Department of Transportation have decided to extend the free ride program until end of June.
Capati, meanwhile, noted the record-breaking achievements of the MRT-3 during the implementation of the free rides, including hitting a 351,952 ridership last May 20 — the highest number of passengers that the line recorded since it went back to operations on June 2020.
Capati said the extension of the free ride program will further allow the MRT-3 to test its capacity and performance following the completion of its massive rehabilitation.
“We are now in the stage of testing the performance of our subsystems following the success of our full-scale rehabilitation. We hope to cater to more passengers with the extension of the free ride program, as well as showcase the improved services of the MRT-3 and restore the public confidence in our mass transport system,” he said.
To achieve this, Capati said, MRT-3 will continue the deployment of four-car train sets for revenue which can accommodate up to 1,576 passengers.
The MRT-3 management and its maintenance provider, Sumitomo-MHI-TESP, completed the rehabilitation of the rail line last December 2021.
Last March, President Duterte led the inauguration of the fully rehabilitated MRT-3 at the Shaw Boulevard station in Mandaluyong City.
The massive rehabilitation gave way for the MRT-3 to double its operating speed to 60 kilometers per hour from the previous 25-30 kph. The headway or waiting time between trains was also trimmed to 3.5-4 minutes from 8.5-9 minutes.
The MRT-3’s operational train sets likewise increased to up to 22 trains, a far cry from the 10-15 trains daily that the MRT-3 management could only deploy before.
