• LRT vending machines to accept new P5 coins in March

Ticket vending machines (TVMs) installed at the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) stations will start accepting new coins released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in March, the railway operator said.

“The P5 coins, which are now in circulation, are expected to be compatible with the existing TVMs by March 2018,” Light Rail Manila Corp. (LRMC) said in a statement.

It said AF Payments Inc., the concessionaire of the Automated Fare Collection System and supplier of the TVMs, has started working on the required calibration of the TVMs to process the new P5 coins.

The procedure, to be undertaken in Germany, will take approximately three months to complete.

As the TVMs cannot process the new coins for now, LRMC is reminding passengers to double check their P5 coins to avoid inconveniences, especially during the holiday rush.

“Passengers may opt to purchase single-journey ticket, Stored Value Card (SVC) or topup SVC through station tellers. They may also exchange their new coins with old ones through the station tellers,” LRMC said.

LRMC is a joint venture of Metro Pacific Investments Corp.’s Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., Ayala Corp.’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., and the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure’s Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte Ltd.