MRT-3 builder offering to resume maintenance

The MRT-3’s private builder is offering to reassume maintenance of the rotting commuter railway from the government. The offer includes full rehabilitation of trains and tracks over two years with no shutdown of operations.

“We can rehab the system while continuing to service hundreds of thousands of daily passengers,” said president Frederick Parayno of Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC). “Continuous service while completely overhauling is what government wants.” Malacañang announced the other day that temporarily closing the railway is not an option, as riders would have no alternative transport through Metro Manila.

MRTC has submitted proposals to the Dept. of Transport (DOTr) and to Malacañang. It has yet to receive a reply.

To rehab and maintain MRT-3, MRTC will rehire Sumitomo Corp., riorated. MRT-3 suffered at first thrice weekly then thrice daily breakdowns. Passengers were injured in sudden unintended braking between stations. Trains derailed six times from Apr. to Oct. this year alone.

Three weeks ago the DOTr terminated the remainder of BURI’s services till Dec. 2018, and took over the daily maintenance. BURI had reneged on its commitment, for P3.8 billion, to maintain the system and overhaul just 43 of the 73 coaches. In taking over, the DOTr retained BURI’s (mostly Sumitomo’s old) employees, and lessened the number of trains from 20 to only 15 reliable ones. Glitches still bog down operations, and a suspected sabotage last week caused coaches to decouple while accelerating.

The DOTr wants to rehire Sumitomo directly but has no legal justification to do so. Out of the question is the recommendation of the Hong Kong MTR, as