The LRT-2 last week resumed partial operations, servicing passengers between Recto and Cubao stations despite the damaged rectifiers between Anonas and Katipunan stations.

PASSENGERS wait for their turn to board an LRT coach. AFP

Good news came to Metro Manila commuters yesterday as the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) management announced that the LRT-2 line may be fully restored in two to three months in time for the holiday season.

In a radio interview, LRTA spokesman Atty. Hernando Cabrera said that while the train line’s engineers are still assessing the damage on the power rectifiers that caught fire early this month, a “big possibility” of a component-by-component replacement of the damaged parts would cut the timeline of repair.

To recall, the LRT-2 last week resumed partial operations, servicing passengers between the Recto and Cubao stations despite the damaged rectifiers between Anonas and Katipunan stations.

“By Christmas, that’s our objective,” Cabrera said. “But that would still depend on the damaged parts that will be replaced.”

Authorities earlier anticipated repairs would take nine months as spare parts are still to be ordered from other countries.

“The LRTA is also planning to add another train to the current five deployed in the LRT-2 line,” Cabrera said.

The LRTA also announced the LRT-2 system will have new stations in Tutuban, Divisoria, and Pier 4 through the Line 2 West Extension Project, saying that the P10.1 billion project is set to be finished by 2023.

LRTA administrator Reynaldo Berroya said travel time from Recto — currently the last station at the west point of LRT-2 — to Pier 4 is estimated to only take five minutes, while travel time from Masinag, the last station in the east point of LRT-2 that is under construction to Pier 4 will not exceed an hour.

Berroya noted the LRT-2 West Extension Project under the “Build, Build, Build” program aims to encourage more passengers to take the mass transit system, help ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila, and also help mitigate climate crisis by minimizing fossil fuel use.

It may be recalled that WESTRAX Joint Venture got the project consultancy contract for the LRT-2 West Extension Project on 19 July and issued the Notice to Proceed on 16 August this year.

The LRTA added that WESTRAX will assist in the bidding process for the contractors that will work on the project for which procurement is projected to start by January 2020.

The LRT-2 moves about 240,000 passengers daily. With the completion of the extension project, the rail system can cater to the needs of 16,000 more passengers each day.

“The increase in commuters who will benefit from the extension project translates to the reduction of commuters not using Metro Manila’s congested streets. For ease of commuting, LRT-2 as a public mass transport system will be the way to go,” Berroya explained.

Meantime, an urban planner and architect on Monday stressed that the use of cable cars as a mode of transportation in Metro Manila to ease traffic congestion is “feasible.”

In a television interview, Felino Palafox Jr. explained that a cable car could ferry 10 people versus the ridership of cars nowadays at 1.6 passengers per vehicle.

“Maybe cable cars from Antipolo going to Ortigas, Makati. It’s feasible, they have done that in many countries,” said Palafox. “Car ownership used to be a privilege of the few, now it’s the expectation of majority. You cannot control the ownership of cars but you can regulate the use of cars.”

The urban planner cited Manhattan, New York as an example — where car owners are charged each time they move their vehicle to another parking space. He also cited Singapore, where residents must provide proof of having a garage before being able to purchase a vehicle.

A similar legislation is pending before the Senate and Palafox stressed that the government must address the traffic problems of the metropolis through urban planning, land use, transportation planning, traffic engineering and traffic management.

He earlier proposed to construct an elevated walkway along EDSA and pedestrian bridges across Pasig, Marikina and San Juan rivers to promote walkability, which he said was an indicator of a first world country.

“We’re still a third world country because one of the reasons is our leaders, both in government and business, still take their cars, not the public transit,” Palafox said.

However, he previously said that plans to improve mass transportation in Metro Manila are 40 years behind schedule, adding that a “catastrophic traffic and lack of decent housing” were already predicted as early as 1976.

He said the World Bank-funded Metro Manila Transport, Land Use and Development Planning Project, or MMetroplan, published in 1976, already saw challenges brought about by flooding, overpopulation, poor housing and traffic.

“With a do-nothing scenario, we will have catastrophic traffic, flooding, lack of decent housing and we will not be prepared for disasters. In 1976, we already said that,” said Palafox, who served as senior planner and team leader for development planning of the MMetroplan.