Decrepit Philippine trains start issuing delay certificates

MANILA: The Philippine capital’s decrepit train network will start issuing certificates of delay to tens of thousands who are late for work because of daily breakdowns, the government said yesterday.

With only seven trains for half a million passengers, Manila’s Metro Rail Transit (MRT) is a commuter’s nightmare, and creaking locomotives stop midtrack increasingly frequently.

“This is a transparency measure. People deserve to know what problems occurred, anything that could cause a stoppage from a broken rail to air-conditioning that stopped working,” transportation department spokesman Michael Arthur Sagcal told AFP.

The “incident report”, however, will only certify the cause of the delay and will not be worded as an excuse letter for tardiness, Sagcal said.

“It’s up to the requesting individual how to use it,” he said, when asked if the document could be used as an excuse letter.

Commuterswalkingonoverhead rail tracks several storeys high beside stalled trains have become a common sight in the packed city of 12 million people.

The decaying MRT is also dangerous. In August last year, dozens were injured after one train overshot its track and rammed into a busy highway.

A multi-billion dollar infrastructure overhaul plan by President Benigno Aquino has moved painfully slowly, and only one year remains before he steps down next June.

When it opened in the late 1990s, the MRT had 20 running trains, each with three cabs, but years of neglect, aggravated by wrangling between the government and its private partner, have reduced this number to seven. — AFP