Cable cars still on the table, Tugade says

THE Department of Transportation said plans to attract investment in a cable-car line are ongoing, two years after the department first floated the idea as a means of easing road congestion.

Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said at the Asia CEO forum at the Manila Marriott Hotel in Pasay City that he “has not forgotten” about the cable cars.

“We are finalizing certain details, hopefully I would be able to convince proponents,” he said.

Mr. Tugade said the current issue is fares, which he hopes will be set at levels that will make cable cars attractive relative to jeepneys, buses, taxis and trains.

“I don’t want a rate that is high so that the public can benefit (from the cable cars),” he added.

In 2016, a month after President Rodrigo R. Duterte assumed the presidency, Mr. Tugade first floated his intention to pursue a cable car project.

At the same forum, Mr. Tugade said he is determined to see through jeepney modernization, noting that the protests of transport groups will not stop him from pursuing the program.

“How many more lives would you like to lose? How many more people will be injured simply because we are using a dilapidated transport system? This has got to stop,” he said.

He said his goal is to create a transport system that treats the rich and poor equally.

The government has given jeepney drivers and operators three years to replace units aged 15 years and above with “modernized” e- jeepneys that are “safer” for the environment. It also offered loans through the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines to support drivers and operators in the transition.