BRT, monorail and other projects
WE HAVE heard of many plans to solve Metro Cebu's traffic problem and of investors proposing projects to executives of local government units like the cities of Cebu and Mandaue targeting the same concern. The latest is from an investment group proposing the construction of a monorail, which it claims can be the long-term solution to the metro's traffic problem.
There is logic in the proposal. Considering the cramped setup in Metro Cebu, the smaller concrete beams that prop up a monorail are easier to build than the hulking structures for light rail transit (LRT) and metro rail transit (MRT)--and it would be, as Mandaue City Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna said, “cost-efficient.” This would, however, still go through detailed engineering and feasibility studies.
A great Chinese leader once intoned, “let a hundred flowers bloom, and a thousand schools of thought contend,” which in the present case can be a call to present as many ideas there are to solve the metro's traffic woes. But eventually those ideas have to be sifted. Who will do the sifting when it comes to Metro Cebu is something that needs to be looked into.
Former congressman and now Talisay City Mayor Eduardo Gullas has long been an advocate of an LRT for the metro's mass transit system. It has been shot down as being much too costly but its biggest drawback is that the proposed LRT can only be feasible if it runs the length from, say Carcar City in the south to Danao City in the north. The LRT has to pass Cebu City whose mayor is not open to the idea.
There is reason why the bus rapid transit (BRT) pushed by Mayor Tomas Osmeña is being built only in Cebu City. Or that Mandaue City may soon come up with its own mass transport system after three groups, including the monorail proponent, presented separate proposals.
To each his own, so to speak. Which is not the way to manage the metro. This in turn is an argument for a metro-wide administrative body.
For a mass transport system for Metro Cebu, unity of purpose is necessary. Every project has to conform with a metrowide masterplan.