THE vice chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations has defended anew the recently implemented fare increase in the Metro Railway Transit (MRT) Line 3 and the Light Railway Transit(LRT) lines 1 and 2, saying the Filipino commuters still enjoy the lowest rate on rail systems, compared with other countries.
Liberal Party Rep. Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar said the National Economic and Development Authority and Investment Coordinating Council studies show that there was a need for a fare increase because the rates in the country’s light rail systems have remained the same for more than a decade, although bus fares have increased several times.
Evardone, however, challenged the MRT and LRT managements to ensure that improved services should be felt by the commuters in the coming months, after the implementation of the fare increase.
“The MRT and LRT managements should be transparent in the utilization of their funds to make sure that the proceeds are being used for the upgrade of the country’s rail transport system,” Evardone said.
“We should give the MRT and LRT managements chance to improve their services,” he said in a statement.
Evardone said LRT fares have remained the same for 11 years, while the MRT fares had remained unchanged for 13 years. They are both at P15, while bus fares are at P32.
In peso terms, Evardone said the Orange Line of the Tokyo Metro charges a boarding fare of P40 and P3.92 per kilometer. “If we applied the same rate to LRT-1 that would be P110.49 and P90.91 for LRT-2. For MRT-3 the same rate would amount to P106.57,” he said.
On its West Rail Line, the Hong Kong MTR charges a boarding fare of P23.20 and P2.43 per kilometer, which translates to P66.91 on the LRT-1, P54.77 on LRT-2 and P64.48 on MRT 3, if the rates applied locally.
Evardone said the Singapore MTR charges a boarding fare of P28.49 and P1.33 for every kilometer on its NS and EW lines, but, if the rate was applied here, it would cost P52.47 on LRT 1, P45.81 on LRT 2 and P51.13 on MRT 3.
On its NE and Circle Lines, the Singapore MTR charges a boarding fare of P29.23 and P1.36 per kilometer, but that still translates to P53.75 on LRT 1, P46.94 on LRT 2 and P52.39 on MRT 3, Evardone added.
“All Filipinos dream of a system, like our neighbors, but we need to invest in rails. If we don’t invest in it we’ll never get there,” Evardone said.
Comparing the previous LRT and MRT fares to those of other countries, Evardone said boarding fare was at a uniform P9 plus 61 centavos per kilometer on LRT 1, 46 centavos on LRT 2 and 35 centavos on MRT 3.
“But, even with the new fares, the boarding fare is still only at P11 with P1 per kilometer,” Evardone added.
Meanwhile, the fare adjustments that took effect on January 4 marks the first such hike in ticket prices for Metro Manila’s train riders in a decade.
The base fare for the LRT lines 1 and 2 and the MRT is now P11 and an additional P1 will be charged for every kilometer from the station of origin.
This means that a single-journey ticket from Baclaran station to Roosevelt station will cost P30 from the present fare of P20.
Passengers, who use stored-value tickets for end-to-end trips on the LRT 1 and 2 will get a P1 discount.
For MRT 3 single-journey and stored-value tickets from Taft station to North Avenue station, or vice versa, the journey will cost P28 from the current P15.
The Department of Transportation and Communications said the fare adjustments would enable the government to save P2 billion in annual subsidies, or 17 percent of the P12 billion that it allots each year to subsidize the LRT-MRT train systems.