DoTr to deploy interim buses by March while Metro Cebu integrated transport system being finalized
BUSES WILL be deployed in parts of Metro Cebu by March 15 to help ease traffic and commuting woes while the integrated transport plan is still being worked out, Transport Secretary Arthur P. Tugade announced on Saturday. Mr. Tugade said the bus augmentation system will start March 15 in routes covering Fuente Osmeña going to the southern part of Cebu, which is part of the area to be covered by the pending Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. “The buses will have to be equated with the density of passengers that will come in. A lot will depend on the study… by the Technical Working Group,” said Mr. Tugade during the induction ceremony of of JCI Metro Cebu Uptown officers in Cebu City. “This is the interim bus transport system, meaning to say, we will follow the routes of the partial operability of the BRT,” he explained. The DOTr has expanded the routes of the BRT system from only within Cebu City to neighboring areas such as Talisay City. DOTr Undersecretary Mark M. de Leon earlier said Phase 1 of the BRT system will be partially operational before December 2021.
Mr. Tugade also said that they are accelerating the implementation of the cable cars program, which will span between the international airport in Mactan to downtown Cebu, among other areas. “We would like to accelerate this as it affords tourism value. It improves and accelerates the mobility of people,” he said. Another priority project is the monorail system, which will be the backbone of the Integrated and Intermodal Transport System (IITS) in Cebu. The IITS also includes the BRT, point-to-point buses, cable car system, modern jeepneys, bikeways, and walkways. "It has to be IITS for a simple reason that there are just certain areas which are not tugma sa (a fit for the) BRT, meron din hindi tugma sa (some are not suitable for) cable. Kaya dapat kinu-combine natin (That’s why we should be combining)," Mr. Tugade said.