PUBLIC transportation in Metro Manila and adjacent provinces will operate at 70 percent capacity starting today, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) announced yesterday.
LTFRB chairman Martin Delgra III said the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) approved on October 28 the recommendation of the LTFRB and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to gradually increase passenger capacity in public vehicles, including road and railway systems, for a period of one month until full seating capacity is reached.
Delgra said government is also considering requests to allow more taxi and transport network vehicle service fleets to operate in Metro Manila to address greater transport demand due to the Christmas season.
Delgra said the increase in passenger capacity will help cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent hike in fuel prices on the livelihood of public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers and operators.
“The livelihood of public transport drivers and operators was severely affected with passenger capacity in public transport maintained at 50 percent. Increasing passenger capacity will mean a higher revenue for the public transport sector,” Delgra said.
Based on LTFRB Memorandum Circular 2021-064 issued on Nov. 2, 2021, public utility buses (PUBs), public utility jeepneys (PUJs) and UVEs in Metro Manila and Laguna, Rizal, Cavite and Bulacan may now accommodate passengers up to 70 percent of seating capacity.
PUVs were previously only allowed to accommodate 50 percent of their capacities.
LTFRB also clarified that plastic barriers inside PUJs are no longer required nationwide, provided that proper physical distancing is observed, and passengers practice health and safety protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Following the new IATF guideline, the number of passengers per train set in line 1 of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) will increase from 337 up to 972; from 488 to 1,140 in line 2, from 372 to 827 in Metro Rail Transit -3, and from 286 to 667 in the Philippine National Railways.
To justify its recommendation for a higher transport capacity, the DOTr has said: “Studies have shown that only 0.2 percent of traceable outbreaks in Germany were linked to transport, only 1.2 percent of COVID-19 clusters are linked to transport (land, air, and sea), and that there is only a 0.01 percent chance of contracting COVID-19 in public transportation, with the probability decreasing to 0.005 percent risk of infection with face covering.”
